The United
by heyjupiter
Summary: An Animorphs and X-Men movieverse crossover. The war against the Yeerks is escalating, and the Animorphs turn outside their group to look for help. Now complete!
1. Chapter 1

Chapter 1

Author's note: Hi, this is the nerdiest thing I've ever written. I hope you like it. Also, as far as timeline goes, this takes place post-X2 (but pre/in denial of-X3) in the X-Men movieverse and around book 40 in the Animorphs series. Ish. Also, I used parentheses in place of pointy pointy brackets for thoughtspeak. (I'm sure you could have figured that out.)

Chapter 1

My name is Jake. Just Jake is all I can tell you, because—and I realize that this sounds melodramatic—I have enemies. Dangerous enemies. Of course, so do you, you just don't know it yet. See, Earth is being invaded. I know, I know—melodramatic. But it's all true. My life is one big melodramatic intergalactic soap opera, and it only gets moreso the more you learn about me and my friends. Life-changing alien gifts, long-lost mothers-turned-enemy, long-lost alien uncles… and heck, I've come back from being dead twice.

But I digress.

Earth is being invaded by parasitic aliens. Yeerks. Yeerks are pretty harmless-looking, slugs a couple of inches long. But if that's all they were, we could stop this invasion with a few well-placed stomps. I wish. No, the Yeerks, as I said, are parasites. They crawl in through the ear canals of sentient species and wrap themselves around their brains. From here, they can access your thoughts, your memories. Control your every move, while you remain a helpless prisoner in your own body. The Yeerks have already conquered the Gedds and the Hork-Bajir, and now they're working on humans. They've been here for awhile now and already have thousands of enslaved humans. We call them Controllers, although what they really are is Controlled.

But there is hope. Hope in the form of me and my friends, the Animorphs. Us six kids (including one alien kid and one bird kid) up against an intergalactic Empire. Not the best odds, I know, but we have certain powers to help us fight. Not like the mutants you hear about in the news. Our powers were given to us by a dying alien. See, the Andalites developed a device—we just call it the blue box—that allows us to morph into any living creature we can touch, for two hours at a time. If we stay for more than two hours, though, we're stuck—just ask Tobias, the aforementioned bird-boy.

So, that about brings you up to speed on this little soap opera I call my life. Today was actually a pretty boring episode—the Yeerks had been suspiciously quiet lately, giving us a little time to catch up on homework, not to mention sleep. Maybe even see a movie or something. It was, of course, too good to be true.


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2

My name is Scott Summers, although I'm also known as Cyclops. Or One-Eye, though I really wish Logan would knock it off with that particular nickname. I—Scott Summers—am a math teacher at a private boarding school in New York. I—Cyclops—am the field leader of a team called the X-Men. (And X-Women, my fiancée Jean would have me add. She died, for awhile, but know she's back. My life is kind of soap opera-esque.)

We, the X-Men, we're all mutants. Despite what Senator Kelley and the so-called Friends of Humanity might have you think, the abilities of most mutants aren't dangerous at all. But ours are. I can shoot incredibly powerful force beams out of my eyes, for example, although I need to wear ruby quartz lenses to control the beams. Hence my codename.

But we X-Men aren't dangerous in the way that those reactionary bigots would have you believe, using our powers to rob banks and terrorize children. We work to protect humankind, mutants and non-mutants alike. We rescue mutant children who have been terrorized by so-called "normal" people. We step in to help deal with situations regular police can't handle, which, yes, sometimes includes crimes perpetrated by other mutants. Lately, this tends to mean the Brotherhood of Mutants, a group of mutant terrorists fighting for mutant supremacy. Their message is an appealing one to many mutants, especially given the current political climate.

Here at the school, we're all worried about the Mutant Registration Act, too. But unlike Magneto and his ilk, we don't believe that mutating—or killing—all non-mutant humans is the way to go about achieving a safer world for mutants.

It's been an uphill battle, but we have hope. The X-Men are a formidable team, and we're not about to give up on humanity just yet, however much some members of humanity might want us to.

After our recent battle at Alkali Lake, things have been relatively calm around here. Magneto has been suspiciously quiet, and Senator Kelley—having been replaced by a shape-shifter called Mystique—has been lying low, although there is still plenty of support for the Mutant Registration Act. We'd been using the relative downtime to catch up on our grading, not to mention sleep. We even took the younger kids into town to see a movie last night. It was, of course, too good to be true.


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 3

My name is Rachel, although my friend Marco calls me Xena: Warrior Princess. He calls me that because I'm always up for a fight. It's not that I'm a bully or something, but I feel like it's my duty to do anything I can to fight the Yeerks. My cousin, Jake, already told you about the Yeerks. What he didn't tell you is that he's our leader, the leader of the Animorphs. That's the kind of guy Jake is; that's why he's our leader, I guess. It's not that he asked for the job, and I know it weighs heavily on him.

I still have regrets about the one mission I took over as leader for, when Jake was out of town. I'd wanted to prove that I could do it as well as Jake, I guess. But I couldn't; I gave into aggression without enough forethought. I almost got us all killed.

Of course, we've all "almost" gotten killed dozens of times. To be honest, deep down I don't think any of us are going to live to get our driver's licenses. But I'd rather go down fighting the Yeerks tomorrow than go to my senior prom controlled by a Yeerk. That's what it comes down to, really; that's why I seem so brave: I'm so terrified of losing my free will. I can't think of anything worse.

That's why, when Erek the Chee—long story short, the Chee are super-advanced ancient androids who have been passing as humans for thousands of years—approached us with a new mission, I was the first to say, "Let's do it." It had been too quiet lately.

Erek, projecting his usual hologram of a junior-high aged kid, was sitting on a bale of hay in my best friend Cassie's barn. Cassie herself, dusty and disheveled, was refilling water dishes in the small cages that lined one wall of the barn/Wildlife Rehabilitation Clinic as she listened to Erek. Jake, Marco, Ax in human morph, and myself were sitting on other bales, trying to ignore the itchiness. We spend enough time in here that we should really set some couches up. Tobias, the last member of our group, was perched up in the rafters.

"Have you guys been following the Mutant Registration Act in the news?" Erek asked.

"Oh, yeah," said Marco. "I've just got tons of free time these days, all of which I spend watching CNN."

"I believe Marco is using human sarcasm," Ax offered, helpfully. "However, I myself do try to watch See En En. En. En." Ax can get carried away in human morph—he's not used to verbal speech, although he's gotten better lately.

"I confess I find these mutants fascinating. Nay ting," Ax continued. "How is it possible that you humans can be making such an evolutionary leap?"

"Yeah, yeah, humans are crazy. Cray. Zee. Just tell us about the Act, Ax-Man," Marco said.

"I was getting to that," huffed Ax. "Your government wants all mutantssss to register their abilitieees with a special Bureau. Byur. Ohh. Many mutants believe this is an invasion of privacy."

"It **is** an invasion of privacy!" burst out Cassie. "It's just terrible the way mutants are being treated."

"I don't get why it's such a big deal," said Marco. "It's just filling out a form or whatever."

"It's a big deal because employers and landlords are discriminating against mutants! They shouldn't be allowed to check up to see who's a mutant and who's not. It's not right."

"Well, I agree with Cassie—"

"Big surprise," muttered Marco.

"But. I don't see what this has to do with us," continued Jake, ignoring Marco. "I mean, we're not even old enough to vote."

Erek smiled. "No, you're not, are you?" He grew serious again, adding, "What it has to do with you is that The Sharing is interested in recruiting mutants. Thus far, it's been a small project—they don't want to risk scaring away too many non-mutant members of The Sharing, and many mutants are suspicious of the group. However, others—feeling isolated from society—are vulnerable to The Sharing's promises of inclusion."

We were all quiet for a moment, and I thought about the mutants I'd seen on TV. The old man who controlled metal, the woman who could fly, the man who shot lasers from his eyes—tough, but we'd taken on Hork-Bajir and Dracon beams.

"We can handle fighting a few mutant-Controllers," I said. "They don't seem any tougher than what we're already up against."

"Perhaps not," Erek acknowledged, "But you should know that one of the more common mutant gifts is telepathy. Mind-reading. A telepath-Controller—"

"A telepath-Controller would mean the end of our secret. The end of everything," Jake finished.

Great, I thought. We already saved ourselves from one psychic enemy, the Leerans, and now we might have another?

"So, what can we do?" I asked Erek. We all leaned in to hear his reply.


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter 4

My name is Logan. Just Logan. I don't know if that's my first name or my last name or if it's even my name at all. I'm also called Wolverine. That was my codename in the secret military project I unwillingly took part in. I think it was unwilling, anyway. Most of my memories are gone. I've been travellin'around, trying to figure out some of my past… went to Japan for awhile, which felt right, but I didn't find much. I ended up back in New York, here with the so-called X-Men.

I'm not really a joiner, but there's something about this place that feels right, somehow. There's Marie, I guess I've been thinking of her as a daughter. We've saved each other's lives, and that's somethin'. And—God, this is corny, the kind of shit Xavier would love to hear me say—but if Stryker's project made me into a weapon, I guess it feels good being a weapon for a cause of some kind. I don't remember my own childhood anymore, but I'm pretty sure I didn't have to go through the kind of bullshit most of Xavier's kids went through on the way here. And it seemed like things were getting worse and worse these days, even with Mystique takin' over for Senator Kelley.

I'd just gotten back to Xavier's a couple days ago and there were more than a dozen kids who hadn't been there three months ago. I hadn't really learned their names yet, though Marie had tried introducing me: there was Emma, another telepath—like we needed more of those around—and a kid with super speed, some purple girl who called herself Blink…here came Marie now with another newbie in tow. A short, dark-skinned boy with a buzz-cut and wide eyes. Looked normal enough. As she brought him closer, though, I realized he didn't smell normal. Didn't smell like anything at all.

"Logan," drawled Marie, "This is Jonathan. He's super strong."

"Hi," the kid said, smiling shyly.

"Hey, kid," I said, extending a hand. He gave me a crushing handshake and I grinned. Thought about asking about his smell—or lack thereof—but I decided against embarrassing the kid. I was getting downright tactful these days. Well, kind of. I immediately went down to Jean's lab, to see what I could find out about this kid. No smell…that was weird.


	5. Chapter 5

Chapter 5

My name is Tobias. Even if I could tell you my last name, it wouldn't really matter. It's not like red-tailed hawks are listed in the phone book, and that's what I am—a human boy stuck in the body of a red-tailed hawk after a too-long battle in the Yeerk Pool. This is not even the weirdest thing about me.

But enough about me—right now what mattered was the story Erek the Chee was telling me and my friends.

"Right now, the Yeerks don't have any telepath-Controllers," Erek explained. "However, the Mutant Registration Act would make it easy for the Yeerks to find and forcibly infest a telepath. This wouldn't necessarily be immediately disastrous to you—telepaths have their limits—but it is definitely something we want to avoid.

I rustled my feathers impatiently. There was definitely something he wasn't telling us.

"So what aren't you telling us?" demanded Rachel. I'd have smiled if I had lips.

Erek held up one holographic hand. "All in good time. It's kind of a long story."

Rachel nodded, though she was still clearly impatient. Even now, with her lips pursed in frustration, Rachel looked lovely. But I already said "Enough about me," and that includes my messed-up love life, too.

Erek continued, "Telepaths exist along a continuum, with a variety of strengths. Currently, we believe that the strongest living telepath is a man named Charles Xavier. It is imperative that Xavier not become a Controller, and not just because of his extraordinary abilities. Xavier is also the headmaster of a boarding school that claims to cater to gifted youth. In fact, we believe it is a school only for mutants. Currently, none of the students are Controllers—it would be extremely difficult for a Yeerk to leave campus undetected, even if it could remain undetected by Xavier. However, if Yeerks took the entire school, it would be an extreme blow to our cause."

"What do the Yeerks know about the school?" Jake asked.

"We aren't sure if they know about it at all," Erek said. "Xavier does his best to keep the truth about his school under wraps, for the safety of the students."

I took a moment to imagine life at a school like that, where all the students were freaks like me—OK, not quite like me, but different, anyway—and where someone worried about my safety. But I wasn't a mutant, just a nothlit, and anyway I was too busy saving the world to be a student at some boarding school.

"But if the Registration Act is passed…" Jake began.

Erek nodded. "If the school's true nature were revealed, it would definitely become a Yeerk. However, we believe the school would be able to put up a good resistance."

"How do you mean?" Jake asked.

"The teachers at this school are mutants, too," Erek replied. "But besides being teachers, they are a sort of mutant police force, known as the X-Men. They are well-trained and formidable fighters, although they try to be as non-violent as possible. They could become excellent allies against the Yeerks."

"If they're so secretive, how do you know all this?" demanded Marco.

"We've been watching the mutant situation with interest for quite some time," Erek said. "Far longer than the Yeerks have been. Furthermore, one of our people has infiltrated the school. He has been able to provide much information about the activities of the X-Men."

"If this Xavier guy is such a great telepath, how did he not notice that one of his students is a robot?" Marco asked.

"Android, not robot," Erek said, mildly. "From what we know about Xavier, he is very restrained in his use of powers. He does not like to invade people's mental privacy, and we rather counted on him not making any attempt to read Jonathan's mind. Thus far, we don't think Xavier has any reason to be suspicious. Furthermore, some mutants are naturally more resistant to telepathic probing, and we hope that if it comes down to it, Xavier will assume Jonathan is one of these."

"But," he continued, "We are hoping not to keep Jonathan's identity a secret for much longer."

Another pause, while we put everything together.

"You want to tell Xavier about the Yeerks," Jake said. "And you obviously want us to be involved somehow, or you wouldn't have told us all this."

"You're good, Jake," Erek said. "Yes, we are planning to tell Xavier about the Invasion. It is somewhat risky—he will be the first human, aside from the five of you, that we Chee have revealed ourselves too. However, we believe he must be warned, before it is too late." He paused, significantly.

Marco put it together. "And it would violate your programming to ask the X-Men to join the war, right? So you want us to come along."

Erek sighed. "It's entirely up to you if you want to join us our not. But no, we could not directly ask the X-Men to fight. We also believe that seeing the six of you would be very persuasive to Xavier. We know the story of the Yeerks seems… far-fetched, especially as he will be unable to read our minds to confirm our story."

"I don't want him reading my mind, either," said Marco.

"Don't worry, Marco, I'm sure he's not interested in your Yasmine Bleeth fantasies," Rachel said. "I say, let's do it!"


	6. Chapter 6

Chapter 6

My name is Ororo Munroe. I am also called Storm. I have also been called a witch. I have also been called a goddess.

I prefer Ororo.

My names—aside from Ororo, my given name—result from my mutant gift, the ability to harness and control the weather. But to control the weather, I must also be in control of myself—unchecked anger on my part can cause a storm, interfering with Nature's plans. So mostly, I try to stay calm as a cloudless day, functioning in harmony with Nature. But sometimes, sometimes it is necessary for me to summon the winds and the lightning to preserve some of Nature's creations.

This was not one of those times. It was a pleasant, warm day with no help from me, and I was sitting in the garden grading papers. Kitty has drawn an interesting parallel between the Mutant Registration Act and the Nuremburg Laws in Germany. Piotr has turned in an essay with doodles in all the margins. Bobby's paper about the repercussions of the 1964 Civil Rights Act is well-argued, but he has consistently misspelled "repercussions."

I looked up from my papers and saw my friend Jean approaching. It is still so strange to see Jean again. She had died last summer, crushed beneath the water at Alkali Lake. But then, one day, she had returned, pale and confused but still Jean. Charles told us how he had blocked off some of Jean's powerful abilities when she was a girl, how these hidden gifts must have resurfaced to save her. The story scares me, a little—my own gifts are powerful, but Jean had transcended the power of death. But I suppose, in the end, all that matters is her return.

Jean looked slightly concerned.

"Hello, Jean," I said. "Is everything all right?"

"Hi, Ro. Yes, everything's fine, it's just—have you noticed anything strange about the new boy, Jonathan Brown? The boy with enhanced strength?"

I set down my red pen and thought. "No, I suppose not. He's rather quiet, but many of them are at first. He seems nice enough to me. Is something the matter with him?"

Jean twisted a lock of hair around her finger. "Well, it's a little strange, but Logan told me he doesn't smell anything from Jonathan. And you know how keen Logan's senses are, he can track everyone in the mansion by smell. And I can't pick up any kind of mental signature from Jonathan."

I frowned. "Strange. Could it be some other aspect of his gift? A secondary mutation of sort?"

Jean shrugged. "Could be, although it doesn't seem to fit."

"Could you run some bloodwork? Research his X-gene?" I don't fully understand Jean's genetic research, but I knew she had done similar work before.

"Well, he's refused to let me draw blood. Says he's terrified of needles. I tried to convince him but he just got so hysterical, and I don't feel right about taking it without his permission."

I nodded; here we are very sensitive to the right to privacy. "Well," I said, "If he were Mystique, you and Logan would be able to tell that, right?" I knew Mystique had posed as a student here once before undetected, but now we were rather wiser to her tricks.

"Right."

"So I don't think it's anything to worry about. There are certainly stranger mutant powers than a lack of scent."

Jean nodded, but still looked troubled.

"Have you talked to the Professor about him?" I asked.

"No," Jean said. "I wanted to check with the other teachers first. I think I'm going to go ask him now, though."

"That sounds wise. Goodbye, Jean."

"Later, Ro."

She sashayed back inside and I returned to my papers. It was hard to stay too worried about young Jonathan Brown's lack of smell when Jubilee believes changing the margins and font size will fool me into thinking 2 pages worth of content is a 5-page essay. "Nice try," I wrote.


	7. Chapter 7

Chapter 7

My name is Marco. What, you haven't heard of me? Marco the Magnificent. Marco the Bold. Marco the Desperately Trying to Finish a 5-Page Essay. It was due later that morning and I only had about two pages of content. Technically, I'd had all weekend to work on it—the first weekend in a long time where I hadn't had to go on any missions with the Animorphs—but there were so many video games I'd needed to catch up on.

I hastily fudged the margins and font size, then hit "Print." I still had three whole minutes to catch the bus.

I suspected that this little number wouldn't fool my history teacher, but it was worth a try, right? I crossed my fingers as I turned it in, hoping for the best.

The rest of the day passed relatively uneventfully—for a minute, I was afraid the cafeteria was serving Yeerks for lunch, but it turned out to be Salisbury steak. Either way, I am definitely going to start packing my own lunch.

No sooner than I'd gotten home from school, though, I got a call from Jake. I used to like getting calls from Jake. It used to mean he wanted to play basketball or Sega, maybe catch a movie. These days, Jake just calls to give me veiled messages like this one: "Remember that science project Erek wanted us to help him with? We're going to start working on it right now, at his house."

I sighed. So much for that quiet spell in my life. "I'll be right over."

I debated the merits of flying versus biking, opted for flying. I stashed my clothes in the garage, went osprey, and flapped over to Erek's place. I demorphed behind the backyard privacy fence and knocked on the back door. Erek let me in. Jake and Cassie were already there.

"Rachel's out looking for Ax and Tobias," Jake said.

"Those two really need to get on a cell phone plan," I said, shaking my head.

Erek's "dad" began filling us in. Jonathan had sent word via Cheenet that the X-Men were growing suspicious of him. Erek and Mr. King were planning to drive out to New York as soon as possible. If we wanted to come with, other Chee would cover for us.

We heard a knock on the back door and Erek let in two potential teen models and a red-tailed hawk, awkwardly hopping on the ground. Guess I should morph, Tobias said sheepishly. Tobias doesn't feel all that comfortable being human anymore, but all the same he began shifting upward and outward into an awkward, dirty-blonde boy.

We filled them in on the plan. Rachel, of course, wanted to leave 5 minutes ago. Even I couldn't really see any reason not to. This seemed like the safest mission we'd been on since, well, ever. Plus, if we told these X-Men about the invasion, and they believed us, and joined us…well, it was a lot of ifs, but it might be nice to have some human adults join the fight.

Jake, Cassie, Rachel, and I flew home to pack quick overnight bags for the trip. The plan was for Mr. King to come by each of our houses, picking us up and dropping off our Chee replacements. Mr. King, not needing sleep, would drive all night and all day until we got there. Of course, since Erek was technically as old as Mr. King—which is to say, very old—he could have driven, too, although his usual hologram would have worried any traffic cops.

I myself am an excellent driver, but being a law-abiding citizen I'm waiting a few more years for a cross-country roadtrip of my own.

We set off around sunset, just some fun-loving kids, androids, and aliens hitting the road.


	8. Chapter 8

Chapter 8

My name is Jean Grey. Just Jean; I never took a codename the way the other X-Men have. It seems silly to me, something out of a comic book. "Holy peace-keeping mutants, Batman!" And anyway, I never really thought of a good one. Scott suggested "Marvel Girl," but he was joking. I'm pretty sure. Charles has begun to call me Phoenix, ever since I came back, but I don't really care for that, either. So just Jean is fine, or Dr. Grey if you're being formal.

It was as Dr. Grey that I was still trying to persuade Jonathan Brown to let me examine him. I was used to reluctant patients—so many of our students come to us having been labeled freaks or worse; they're not used to being treated with kindness and respect by a doctor, a thought that makes my eyes burn with rage. But I've usually been able to turn kids around pretty quickly. Not so with Jonathan, and my curiosity was growing along with a slight sense of…not nervousness, exactly, but something…there was something more than met the eye with this boy, and I was determined to know what.

"What about an X-ray, Jonathan?" I asked. "No needles, and I'll be right there with you the whole time. It won't hurt, not even a little bit."

He shook his head, trembling. "Please, no."

"We're here to help you, you know," I said. "We're just curious about your mutation, that's all."

He fidgeted, gazed up at me with big eyes. "Are you going to kick me out if I don't?"

"Oh, honey, no, of course not. Of course you can stay here." I felt bad for bullying this boy to satiate my own curiosity, and I went down to scoop him up into a hug. Only I couldn't; he was **heavy**. A metal skeleton like Logan? I wondered. But his medical chart showed him at slightly less than average weight for his height. Very strange.

The boy shrugged and mumbled, "Seeya, Dr. Grey," before bolting out of the lab.

I twisted a lock of hair around my finger—a girlhood habit I'd taken up again since I'd returned—and headed up to Xavier's office.

_Come in, Jean_, I heard in my head, and I opened the door to see that the Professor was not alone in his office.


	9. Chapter 9

Chapter 9

My name is Cassie. Just Cassie; you know the story by now. My name is Cassie, and I'd never felt more underdressed than I did here in this gorgeous mansion, in this kind old professor's elegant office. Maybe Rachel was right; maybe I should consider buying my clothes somewhere other than Wal-Mart.

Get a grip, Cassie, I told myself, there are more important things at stake here than your wardrobe.

We'd gotten in to see Xavier easily enough; Mr. King had made an appointment claiming to be a social worker who had two "gifted" kids the Xavier Institute might be interested in. The two students were Ax and I. Erek waited in the van. Tobias was in the air. Jake and Rachel were on me as fleas, and Marco was a squirrel in a tree outside.

We'd started off with a polite chat. Professor Xavier had told us about the school's lovely grounds and talented faculty. He'd told us that two gifted students like us would fit right in here, and asked us to tell him about ourselves. Ax and I looked at each other quickly.

I took a deep breath. "Well, Professor Xavier, we're a little unusual."

He smiled warmly. "Many of our students could be considered a little unusual."

"Well—I guess I should say we're more than a little unusual."

He kept smiling. "How do you mean, Cassie?"

"Well, sir, my friend—" I'd almost said "friends," forgetting that the others were a secret until we were sure we weren't being set up, although I already felt sure. Something about him seemed trustworthy. I felt like I'd known him all my life. "—My friend and I are here to tell you that Earth is being invaded by aliens," I finished.

To his credit, although Xavier looked surprised, he did not laugh at me, just asked me to continue. I told him the whole story, starting from the night in the construction site. Ax demorphed to Andalite. I morphed a seagull and back again. Mr. King dropped his hologram—here a brief flicker of recognition passed on Xavier's face, as if this revelation, at least, made perfect sense. Mr. King opened his android head and showed Xavier the Yeerk trapped inside. At this point, a pretty red-headed woman entered the room. Xavier smiled at her and said, "Jean, I´d like you to meet Mr. Jean, Cassie, and Aximili."


	10. Chapter 10

Chapter 10

My name is Charles Francis Xavier, PhD. I am usually called Professor Xavier, or Professor X, or simply "The Professor," though I must confess that the latter always reminds me of _Gilligan´s Island_.

I have devoted my life to helping mutants like myself. My dream is a world where mutants and non-mutants alike live in harmony. My old friend Erik tells me that this is foolish, that even before mutants appeared, humans never managed to live in harmony. "Yes," I said, "But we are a step forward, are we not?"

It was an issue we never saw eye to eye on.

So when a young girl, an android, and an alien visited my office to warn me of an alien invasion, I thought that perhaps this would be the perfect opportunity for humans and mutants to unite, working together against a common enemy.

After thinking about it some more, however, I do not believe this will be the case. I believe that like so many other battles my X-Men have fought, this one will be painful and secretive; that once again humankind will be blissfully unaware of the battle being fought on their behalf by those many of them despise. But, perhaps one day, the truth can be told.

For now, I faced the three remarkable beings in my office. Their story was incredible, but I knew—as only a telepath can know—that they were telling the truth. I also knew that there were more than three—more than two, really, since I didn't perceive the android—minds in the room.

"And the three of you have fought the Yeerks alone?" I asked.

"Actually, my programming forbids me to perform any violent act," Mr. King, the android, said.

Cassie, the human girl, cleared her throat and said, "Actually, there are a couple more of us."

Aximili, the alien, said telepathically, Prince Jake? Rachel? Tobias? Marco? We believe it is safe for you to reveal yourselves.

Suddenly, a boy and a girl began growing out of nowhere on my carpet, their bodies hideously grotesque for the first minute. A squirrel and a hawk appeared on my windowsill. Cassie walked over to open the window, and the squirrel hopped in and began to change into a boy. The hawk flew over to the blonde girl's shoulder and stayed there.

The hawk looked at me and said, Hello, Professor Xavier. My name is Tobias. I'm what's known as a nothlit—I stayed in morph longer than 2 hours, and now this is my permanent shape.

They were definitely different from Mystique, who had no time limits on her morphing and who merely changed from human to human.

"It's nice to meet you, Tobias. I'm sorry to hear about your condition."

He ruffled his feathers—the bird equivalent of a shrug? It's not so bad, being a bird. Awhile ago I was given my morphing powers back, but mostly I'm just used to being a hawk.

I'd filled Jean in telepathically, but she hadn't seen the earlier demonstrations of morphing.

"My God," she said. "This is **fascinating.** How does it work?"

Aximili swiveled his two stalk eyes to peer at Jean. It is against the laws of my people to explain our technology to aliens.

The boy who had been a squirrel laughed and said, "Yeah, well, it's illegal to use our technology on us too, isn't it?"

"So this technology really was triggered by technology? It's not a natural mutation?" Jean asked.

The alien's strange face somehow conveyed disapproval, but he answered No, the morphing ability is not natural. It is imparted through use of the Escafil device, developed by Andalite engineers earlier this century. Currently all Andalites have been given morph capabilities, though of course there are a few vecols whose bodies did not accept morphing capabilities. My five friends are the only non-Andalites who possess morphing technology.

"Has this been studied thoroughly? Are there side effects?" pressed Jean, and I knew she was remembering Senator Kelley, the real Senator Kelley, and Erik's—Magneto's—disastrous attempt at forcing mutation.

Aximili shifted his weight slightly among his hooves; he was annoyed. Andalite scientists are much more sophisticated than human scientists. The Escafil device is safe, provided the 2-hour time limit is adhered to. One stalk eye swiveled toward Tobias, the bird.

"And provided you're not allergic to the animal you acquire," added the blonde girl with a grimace. "I'm Rachel, by the way."

"Pleased to meet you," I said, glancing at the other two.

"I'm Marco," said the boy who had been a squirrel.

"I'm Jake," said the boy who had been a flea. "I'm kind of the leader."

I met his gaze and noticed how old he seemed. He was a good leader, I sensed.

"Well," I said, "You must be hungry. Why don't we have some dinner? We can introduce you to the others."

The children looked at Jake, who nodded. "Yes, thank you, Professor." Then he turned to his companions. "Ax? Tobias?"

Immediately, the two began transforming to human. Mr. King projected his human hologram.

Jean gasped. "Tell me, Mr. King, do you know a Jonathan Brown?"


	11. Chapter 11

Chapter 11

My name is Aximili-Esgarrouth-Isthill. I am the younger brother of Elfangor-Sirinial-Shamtul. He was a great warrior. I hope to be considered a great warrior one day, too. For now I am trying the best I can to serve my human prince, Jake. He is an honorable warrior and I am proud to follow him.

Right now I was following him to dinner. Although I still felt nervous about sharing our secret with these humans, I felt happy about eating dinner. Food is my favorite thing about being human. Human comestible technology is amazing. Cinnamon buns! Skittles! Cigarettes! Pringles! Marco taught me how to use Pringles to create a facsimile of a duck's bill, although I do not understand why he does not simply morph if he wishes to create that effect.

Together, we filed into a room with one long table and many chairs. I noted that Professor Xavier had brought his own chair with him from the office. It was on wheels. Humans are so clever with wheels, I am very curious to see what they will achieve when they discover anti-gravity field technology.

I sat down next to Prince Jake, who hissed, "Ax, please try not to talk unless it's absolutely necessary. And before you eat anything, look at the rest of us to see if we're eating it. No napkins or silverware or anything, OK?"

"Yes, Prince Jake. Jay Kuh. I have learned many rules about food."

He nodded, and I felt a little offended. He was worried that I would embarrass him in front of the X-Men, to whom we were being introduced. We already knew Professor Xavier and Jean Grey, and we met Ororo, a woman with dark skin and white hair (this confused me, since I knew white hair to be a sign of age in humans, and she appeared young otherwise); Logan, a man with more facial fur than was usual in humans; Scott, a man who wore red eye coverings; and Hank, a man who was blue and furry, rather like myself. I wanted badly to ask Hank how he had come to look like that, but I had promised Prince Jake I wouldn't speak too much. I noticed the other Animorphs casting glances at Hank as well.

A woman began bringing food out to the table. We started with plates of salad. I like eating salad; it reminds me of grass, but eating it with my mouth makes such a difference. I kept my promise to Prince Jake, however, and carefully watched the others before I began eating, just in case this salad had any tricks.

The man named Logan spoke. "So we're supposed to believe a buncha aliens are taking over Earth, but no one knows about it?" I believed his tone of voice was to be perceived as unfriendly.

"It's true," said Jean. "They're telling the truth."

Logan appeared to accept this; he grunted.

"It is true," Jake said, meeting Logan's gaze. "My brother is one of them. A Controller."

Marco added, "We've seen the Yeerk pool. Seen the Blade ship. They are here."

"I am dreadfully interested to know more about the physiology of these extraterrestrials," said Hank.

"You can see mine," offered Mr. King.

"Ah, you must be the android Professor Xavier told us about!"

I wondered when Xavier had had time to tell everyone the details, but then remembered that he could use thoughtspeak.

Mr. King dropped his hologram, and Hank gasped. "Oh, my stars and garters! Why, the amount of energy required to project such a sophisticated hologram alone—"

"Hank," said Scott, "I hate to interrupt your scientific mind at work, but I think we have more important concerns right now."

"Of course, of course, my apologies."

Scott gazed across the table at us. "The seven of you have really been fighting these…Yeerks…for what, a year now?"

"Actually, my programming prevents me from committing any act of violence," Mr. King said. "The six of them having been fighting the Yeerks."

"But you're just children!" burst out Ororo.

Jake shrugged. "We didn't think we'd do much good if we waited until we were 18 to fight the Yeerks."

"But you could have told someone, or…" she trailed off. "But you didn't know who you could trust. What a terrible position you kids have been in." She spoke warmly now, smiling sadly at us.

"Can you tell us how you've fought them?" Scott asks.

Some delicious pasta and bread have arrived. I ate all of mine, but I mimicked Prince Jake and only put a little butter on my bread. I did not eat any butter without bread. Delicious butter, maybe no one would notice if I took just a bit more…no, I decided, I had promised not to do such things.

"You're already familiar with the idea of the morphing technology?" Jake asked.

"Yes," Scott said. "I'd love to see it, though, if you wouldn't mind."

Jake smiled. "I wouldn't, but you might if we don't wait until after dinner. It can be kind of gross to watch."

I do not understand why humans hold this opinion of morphing, but they do.

"Ah," Scott said, poking his pasta.

"Well, so morphing has been pretty much our only weapon against the Yeerks. We've mostly stuck to small morphs, fly or cockroach, to spy on high-ranking Yeerk activities. Of course, we also get excellent information from the Chee," he said, nodding at Mr. King.

"Then, if we can, we use our morphs to try to stop whatever Yeerk plans we can." Jake described some of our missions. I believe the X-Men were impressed.

"You guys went to **Antarctica** and melted a bunch of aliens?" Logan asked incredulously.

"We didn't want to melt them," Cassie sad. "But we had to get away, and they had to follow their programming and follow us indoors."

"And you blew up an underwater shark factory?" Logan asked.

"It wasn't exactly a shark factory," Jake said.

"And you put a bunch of oatmeal in the Yeerk pool?" Logan asked.

We nodded.

"Guess those guys just can't take too much fiber," Logan smirked. I believed the look on Cassie's face represented disapproval, though Marco gave a small laugh.

"Look," Jake said. "We've done a lot of crazy things. But the war is escalating. We think it's only going to get worse, since Visser Three is urging for an open war. In some ways, that might be good. More people will probably join us in fighting the Yeerks. But it's also going to mean more humans being taken, and more humans being killed."

"Visser Three is the one in charge of the invasion?" asked Scott. He was matter-of-fact. I am always impressed by how quickly humans can adapt to new situations.

Jake replied, "Yes. However, until recently he has been tempered by Visser One, who outranks him but is no longer permanently stationed on Earth. Visser One believes that a more subtle invasion—the kind that is currently underway—is the best way to subdue Earth. The conflict between these two Vissers has been very useful to us. But lately, Visser One has fallen out of favor with Yeerk high command. We're not sure how much longer Visser One's opinions will be given credit."

Scott clasped his hands together and leaned forward. "So, what exactly would a full-scale Yeerk invasion of Earth mean for us? What kind of firepower do they have?"

"Well, they have their Hork-Bajir and Taxxon shock troops. Hork-Bajir are an alien species that look basically like a walking Salad Shooter. Free Hork-Bajir are peaceful herbivores. But almost all of the Hork-Bajir are Controllers now, and a Hork-Bajir Controller is dangerous. The Taxxons are worse. They're giant carnivorous centipedes. They joined with the Yeerks willingly because they wanted to eat more victims. Plus, of course, there are human-Controllers, armed with Dracon beams."

"Dracon beams?"

"They're, well, basically sci-fi style ray guns."

"They are a modified version of the Andalite shredder," I interjected. "The Yeerks tampered with our design in order to cause a more painful death."

Scott looked at me for the first time. "You're the Andalite?"

"Yes," I said. "I am in human morph now." I felt pleased with myself. I was conveying useful information in a normal human fashion. Just then, another course of food began to arrive at the end of the table. Soon, a small dish of a soft brown substance was placed in front of me.

"I must say that not even news of an impending alien invasion could ruin my appetite for some of your chocolate mousse, Moira," Hank said.

The woman—Moira, I supposed—laughed. "Oh, Hank, you flatterer. I'll leave some leftovers in your lab fridge."

"Moira! You absolute angel."

"You'd better leave some carrot sticks in his fridge too, Moira," Jean added.

"Oh, I know all about this one's eating habits, don't you worry."

Hank sighed. "Man—nor mutant—cannot live on bread alone. We need chocolate and Twinkies to make it through this mortal coil."

I approved of Hank. Many humans do not seem to appreciate their own culinary wonders. After dutifully watching Prince Jake scoop up a spoonful of mousse, I did likewise. It was delicious. So creamy and rich, like a dream cloud on my tongue.

I heard a laugh. "Looks like that kid likes it as much as you do, Fuzzball," Logan said.

I realized that my bowl was empty, and I had lifted it to my face to lick out the last remnants.

Jake sighed. "He's not really used to tasting food. Andalites absorb nutrients through their hooves. When he's human he can get… a little carried away by certain flavors."

"Yeah, you do not want to get between this guy and a cinnamon bun," Marco said.

"Moira makes an incredible cinnamon bun," Hank said.

Moira, still distributing the last few bowls of mousse, laughed. "It is nice to be appreciated," she said. She came back and placed another bowl in front of me.

"Thank you very much," I said. "This food product is more delightful than the light of my homeworld's sun refracting from a pond in the late afternoon."

"That might be the best compliment I've ever gotten, son," she said.

The second bowl of mousse was just as delicious as the first.

Scott cleared his throat. "All right, if we're done preparing for our appearance on Food Network…"

I love the Food Network.

"Of course," Jake said. "So, there's the Hork-Bajir, the Taxxons, and the humans."

"How many are we talking here?"

"Well, we're not exactly sure," Jake began.

"Chee intelligence suggests that there are perhaps 50,000 human-Controllers on Earth. There are perhaps 10,000 Hork-Bajir—they were nearly extinct, although they are growing in number. The Yeerks have access to millions of Taxxons, although on Earth there are generally less than 100,000. Taxxons have a very short life span," Mr. King said.

Scott nodded. "Okay. Okay. So there's no way we could take on that many in direct combat. We'd definitely have to get regular armies involved."

"Are we seriously talking about getting involved with this alien invasion crap?" Logan said.

"How can we not?" asked Scott. "Do you think we should just sit around and wait for them to come put slugs in our brains?"

"I'm saying I don't think we should be getting involved with this kinda stuff. We already had Stryker come raid the school once, do you really want a bunch of aliens coming here for the kids?"

"How dare you. How dare you imply that I don't have the best interest of the kids—"

"Scott. Logan. Stop it," Jean said. The two men glared at each other, but the conversation ended.

Jake hesitated, then said, "Look, I know this is a lot to take in, but there's one more thing we should tell you."

Everyone looked at him expectantly.

"Well, according to the Chee, the Yeerks are just now starting to become interested in acquiring mutants. Particularly telepaths. Right now we don't think they know about your school, but if the Mutant Registration Act goes through, or if, say, one of your student's parents becomes a Controller…."

Scott ran his hand through his hair, something people often do on soap operas. He did appear both young and restless.

"Excuse me," I said, "but it has been nearly two of your hours. Tobias and I must demorph, lest we are forced to remain human forever."

"I thought there was only one alien," Logan said.

"Yes," I said, as I began demorphing. "Tob—" I lost my human mouth quickly. (Tobias is human. But he became trapped in morph, a red-tailed hawk. His morphing powers were restored by a being called the Ellimist, but hawk is still his permanent form.)

"That is fucked-up," Logan said.

(Tell me about it,) said Tobias.

Professor Xavier and Jean had already seen us morph, but the others were still staring.

"You were right," Scott said. "That was pretty gross to watch."

"But fascinating!" Hank interjected. "This goes far beyond Mystique's powers of metamorphosis. And tell me, are you all telepaths?"

(No,) I said. (We are not mutants. Andalites, as you can see, do not possess mouths. We communicate using thoughtspeak. However, we do not have any sort of psychic abilities. The ability to use thoughtspeak is embedded into the morphing technology, so my friends can use it when they are in morph.)

"Incredible," Hank said.

Scott looked thoughtful. "Look," he said, "We really appreciate you sharing all this information with us. And we…we respect everything you've done. But we'd really like some time to discuss this amongst ourselves. This is… this is big."

Jake nodded. "Of course."

"Can you stay here tonight? Do, um, do you need to call your parents or anything?"

My friends laughed. "Nah, my parents are chilling with my robot double right now," Marco said.

"What?" asked Scott.

"Yes, we can stay here. Thank you," Jake said.

"I'll show you to some extra rooms," Jean said. She turned to me. "Do you sleep on a bed? What would you be most comfortable with?"

(I am accustomed to sleeping outdoors, on the ground. However, I do not wish to remain outdoors here, where I may be seen. I will rest on the floor in my friends' room.)

"What about you, Tobias?"

(I'll find a nice tree outside.)

"And Mr. King?"

"I do not require sleep. I will return to my car outside, another Chee has been waiting there."

"Another… why didn't you say something earlier? Nevermind. Alright, so two girls, three boys… four beds and one boy-sized piece of floor. Not a problem. We'll go up to the third floor." She began leading us out of the room. Before we got to the staircase, she turned to us and said, "We'd appreciate it if you could avoid talking to any of the other students. The third floor is pretty empty but there are a couple new students at the other end of the hall. It's just… right now we really don't want to explain all of this to them." She sounded a little embarrassed.

"Sure, no problem," Jake said. "I think we can avoid a few kids."

"If you do run into them, could you please just tell them you're prospective students?"

(Would you like me to morph back to human?)

She hesitated. "If you wouldn't mind… just until we get up to your rooms."

(I would not mind.) I began to morph, again.

We followed her in silence until we reached two bedrooms, side-by-side. "These two are a suite with a shared bathroom in the middle," she said. "If you need anything, you can call me telepathically.

"Thank you," Jake said.

"No," she said, "Thank you. I know… I know this whole thing has been terrible for you. You're just kids, for God's sake. And now… well, this probably isn't going exactly the way you wanted it to. But please, give us a little bit of time to process all of this. We'll help you, however we can, I promise." She smiled at us, faintly. "Good night."

She turned and went back downstairs, leaving us to our rooms. We all entered one of them and my friends sat on the beds while I began to demorph again.

"Well, I think that went pretty well," Jake said.

(They seem somewhat open to the idea of joining us,) I said.

"Even if they do join us, what's that buy us?" Marco said. "Scott was right, eventually we are going to have to get some actual armies involved here."

"If nothing else, at least we won't have to deal with telepathic-Controllers for awhile," said Rachel.

"And we gave the school time to prepare itself," Cassie said.

Jake sighed. "Let's just get some sleep. We've had a long day. We'll talk to them tomorrow."

"The girls call dibs on this room," Rachel said.

"Fine," Jake said, too tired to argue.

I followed Prince Jake and Marco into the other room, which appeared identical to the girls' room. We opened the window so Tobias could get in if he wanted. I wondered what the X-Men were doing, but I quickly fell asleep.


	12. Chapter 12

Chapter 12

My name is Dr. Henry McCoy, also called Hank. Or Beast. Beast is my codename with the X-Men. The moniker derives from my physical appearance, which is admittedly a bit beastly. I am rather large, owing to my mutant abilities, which grant me enhanced strength and agility. Then there is, of course, the matter of my blue fur. For this I have to thank my own lapse in scientific judgment, not my genetic code. It's been a few years now since the failed experiment that led to my…transformation. It was difficult to adjust to, at first, but now I—and my loved ones—have grown accustomed to my unusual appearance.

It has, however, added complications to my professional life. It shames me to realize that fellow scientists can be so closed-minded, but this has indeed been my experience. This is part of the reason why I returned to the Xavier Institute after Jean's… death. Of course, I also felt a sense of duty to the man and the place that fostered me during my formative years, and it's not easy to find a doctor for an all-mutant school.

Of course, now Jean is back, and I'm still here, with no real thoughts of leaving. Partly, I am enjoying the respite from my old colleagues' frightened looks. Partly, I feel a continued sense of duty to the school. But perhaps most strongly of all, I have increasingly been feeling that the work of the X-Men is only just beginning—though not even an admitted Trekkie like myself could have imagined the quandary currently facing us.

"It gives me the heebie-jeebies to think about an alien slug in my skull," Jean said. We were sitting in a basement room we half-jokingly called the War Room, where we traditionally convened to discuss potential X-Men missions.

"I still can't believe we're seriously talking about aliens," Logan said.

"The Professor and I both sense that their story is true," Jean said. "And you saw them! You saw the alien boy and the android with the, the Yeerk in his head."

"I saw a blue deer and a slug."

"That android represents a stunning technological achievement," I said. "I would absolutely love to have some time to study him. I've been having such trouble configuring the holograms for my little project down here."

"Well, great, Fuzzball, you study the robot and the rest of us move on with our lives," Logan said.

I sighed. "Logan, your recalcitrant attitude is helping no one. If you are so insistent on denial, why don't you simply leave the War Room? The rest of us are convinced and would like to discuss it." I did hope we could avoid further conflict between Logan and Scott; Scott had enough to worry about without this antagonistic ruffian.

Logan scowled, but stayed in his seat.

"I don't see how we can stay out of this conflict in good conscience," Scott said. "There's no way we can let 6 kids go on fighting this war."

"I quite agree," Ororo said. "Furthermore, it sounds as if soon enough we may not have a choice at all."

"What are we going to do about the school?" Jean asked. "If we're fighting these Yeerks, they're going to know who we are, right? It's going to make our kids vulnerable."

"Our kids are tough," Scott said, proudly. "We've been drilling since Stryker's attack. They'll be ready."

"Ready for what? They might be able to escape from an attack on the mansion, but then where are we going to go?" Jean asked.

Scott exhaled. "I think we're going to need some more information from the… what did they call themselves?"

"The Animorphs," I supplied.

"The Animorphs," he continued. "But if things are as bad as they sound, we might not have much time left here anyway. Maybe by joining the fight we lose the school. Maybe by not joining the fight we lose the school."

Charles spoke up for the first time. "I… I do not see a peaceful solution to this situation. It is clear that we cannot negotiate with the Yeerks. It is equally clear that we cannot allow ourselves to become…infested. I've already done too much damage under the control of another."

"Me, too," said Scott.

"I wonder…" Charles started. "I wonder whether Erik and his Brotherhood would join us as well."

Scott laughed derisively. "Magneto's never cared much for human lives."

"No," Charles agreed. "But he would certainly object to mutants being taken as Controllers."

"You really think we should ask that nutjob for help?" Logan demanded.

"Perhaps," Charles said. "And Logan, Magneto is far from insane. He is ruthless and I do not agree with his philosophies. But he is not crazy."

Jean nodded. "I think he would fight with us, if it came to that. But first of all we need to figure out what the X-Men are going to do."

Scott glanced around the table. "Are we all in agreement to join this fight?"

We all nodded, even Logan.

Scott raised his eyebrows above his glasses. "Logan? You're sure?"

Logan shrugged. "I already lost one set of memories, I ain't about to let some damn slug take my head."

"Alright," Scott said. "We'll reconvene tomorrow and find out some more details from the kids."

It was late, but I went to my lab for a bit before heading to bed. Moira had been as good as her word about the mousse in my fridge, and besides, seeing that android had inspired me. I opened up the folder on my computer labeled "Danger Room" and began tinkering with some code.


	13. Chapter 13

Chapter 13

"So, Jake, what's the plan?" Marco asked.

I sighed. "I don't know. It's 8am, my guess is the school's up and running now."

"It is Saturday, dude, maybe they're sleeping in."

"Ax-man, why don't you see if you can call Jean and find out what's happening?"

(Yes, Prince Jake.)

"Don't call me Prince," I said, just for old times' sake.

"Yeah, he's the Artist Formerly Known as Jake," said Marco.

Ax ignored us. (Hello, Jean Grey. We are all awake and awaiting to hear from you.)

We heard her response, in a thoughtspeak somehow different from our own, more ethereal. _Good morning, Animorphs. I'll be up to meet you soon._

And sure enough, we heard a knock on the door within a few minutes. "Good morning," she said, again. "I trust you all slept well?"

"Well enough," I said with a shrug.

She knocked on the girls' door too, saying, "I'll take you guys downstairs for some breakfast and then we'd like to talk to you some more, if that's alright."

"Definitely," I said.

"Would you like to invite your Chee friends?" she asked.

"Yeah," I said. "They don't need to eat but they do have a lot of information."

"And Tobias?"

"Oh… Ax, would you check in with him?"

(Of course. Tobias, have you already eaten breakfast?)

(Yeah, I got a nice mouse.)

"Ask him to come back in with us," I instructed

(Prince Jake requests that you come back inside.)

(On it.)

We heard a flapping through the window and a few minutes later, human-Tobias stepped out into the hallway.

"Good morning, Tobias," Jean said. We walked down the hall and, to my surprise, Jean tapped a panel of the wall. It slid open, revealing an elevator. "We're going down to the basement," she explained. "This school has a few…interesting architectural features."

That was an understatement. While the upper levels of the house were a classy mansion, this basement looked like some state-of-the-art science lab of the future, all sleek and shiny. She took us into a room with a long table. Some cereal and fruit were set out on one end, and she told us to help ourselves.

"Alright! Lucky Charms!" Marco said. "Ax, dude, you have got to morph and try some of these."

(I trust your judgment in such matters, Marco.)

"That's not a phrase you hear every day," smirked Rachel.

Jean smiled at us. "I'll be back in a few minutes with the others. Enjoy your breakfast."

I dished myself some cereal and began eating, although I was also busy thinking. I couldn't really believe the situation we were in, not really. We'd kept our secret so carefully for so long, and suddenly a whole group of people—adults, even—knew about us, and what's more, believed us?

I still wasn't exactly sure what we could expect from the X-Men. They'd seemed willing enough to help, but what would that mean? They had their own powers, and we'd brought the morphing cube—it hadn't gone well the last time we'd shared it, but surely if these X-Men were already fighting for good (God, how cliché), they wouldn't be tempted to sell out, as David had. And anyway, they knew that if they did, they'd just be first in line to host some high-ranking Controller.

But what would it really mean, adding more members to our little group? Xavier's school was located far from where we lived, far from the center of the Yeerk invasion. Would they be willing to relocate? It seemed unlikely. But perhaps it would be more useful to have another group of guerrillas, more distractions for the Yeerks.

Distract them until…what? Until the Andalites came? I wasn´t sure if even Ax believed the Andalites were still coming. Until a full-out war, then? The latter was seeming more and more likely.

"Jake, your Cap'n Crunch is getting soggy," Marco said. "I know you're busy figuring out how to save the world, but there's no excuse for wasting good cereal."

"You're right, man," I said. "My mom never buys Cap'n Crunch, I need to live it up while I'm here."

"Never thought joining the Animorphs would have so many perks, did you?" Marco said. "Good cereal, cool outfits… I guess that's about it, really, and the outfits don't count."

I was about to reply when the door slid open. The X-Men, along with Erek and Mr. King, entered.

"Good morning," Scott said, nodding briskly at us.

"A-ha! I was wondering where these went," Hank said, clutching the box of Cap'n Crunch.

"Don't we have something more important to discuss than cereal?" chided Jean.

"Hey, if the Yeerks take over, first thing they're gonna do is cut back on sugary cereal production," Marco said.

"Heavens to Betsy! Then they really must be stopped," Hank said.

"Yeah," I said. "They do."


	14. Chapter 14

Chapter 14

I took my usual seat at the head of the long table in the War Room.

"Alright," I said. "Let's review. There are unknown thousands of human-Controllers, plus thousands of Taxxons and… Hork-Badgers?"

"Hork-Bajir," Cassie said.

"OK. They also have a considerable fleet of spaceships, including a Blade ship with large animals of destructive capabilities."

The alien, back in his natural form, said (The Blade ship is, of course, not as powerful as an Andalite Dome ship, but I believe it has enough firepower to destroy every major city on Earth.)

I frowned.

"Well, One-Eye, you're the tactical genius. What can we do against the friggen' Death Star?" Logan said.

I shrugged. "Even the Death Star had a weakness."

(I do not believe it would be possible to destroy the Blade ship with our current resources,) Ax said. (If the Andalite fleet comes to our aid, they will be able to take care of it.)

"If the fleet comes?" I asked. "What are the odds of that."

Ax hesitated. (I cannot say for certain. When I last spoke to my people, they pledged support, but only after attending to a planet they felt had a more pressing need for assistance.)

Jake spoke up. "I don't think we should count on receiving any significant Andalite help. But I also don't think we need to worry about a Blade ship attack just yet. Something like that will bring the war out into the open, get the world militaries involved. Visser Three is anxious for an open war, but he's not going to start it yet."

I nodded, a little surprised to find myself talking tactics with a 13-year-old. But then, these kids had been fighting a guerrilla war for a year. This 13-year-old had probably been in more battles than I had.

"The Yeerks' weaknesses are a need for Kandrona rays every 3 days, which they get through the Yeerk Pool, as well as a vulnerability to—oatmeal?" I continued.

"Only instant maple-ginger flavor," Marco said. "It makes them insane, but also removes their need for Kandrona rays."

"Why don't we just go around dumping oatmeal in all the Yeerk pools?" Logan asked.

"Because that's wrong," Cassie said, lifting her chin.

"But is it really any better to kill them when they're in their host bodies?" I asked. "Then it's killing the host, too, and they didn't ask for this." I wished I hadn't said it as soon as I looked at Cassie, whose eyes were filling with tears. I sighed. "Look, either way, this is a nasty business. I can't imagine what you kids have been through, fighting this war on your own. War's something that's not easy for adults, but you guys… well, you're some very strong young adults."

Jake said, "We've done what we needed to do."

I cleared my throat. "OK. So. We can't count on help from more Andalites. We can't take on all the Yeerks in their host bodies. Killing the Yeerks out of their host bodies is ethically questionable, as is driving them to oatmeal-induced madness. Waiting around until we get taken as hosts is unacceptable. Where does that leave us?"

"I don't see what the big deal is about killin' a bunch of slugs," Logan said. "Especially slugs that are here takin' over our planet and want to take over our brains."

The Professor looked troubled. "I have always advocated for peace and nonviolence wherever possible. But it does not seem to me that the Yeerks can be negotiated with. And I quite agree that being taken as a host is unacceptable."

"There is a Yeerk peace movement," Cassie said. "They've helped us a few times. The…well, the one time we tried a full-out attack on the Yeerk pool was a trap. We would have destroyed the entire peace movement."

"Well, if we attack the Yeerk pool again, we'll communicate with the peace movement beforehand," I said, hoping my frustration didn't show. She was just a kid, a kid who'd been fighting hard for our planet. But really, if these Yeerks were as bad as they sounded, why was she so sympathetic to them? And why was I so ready to simply wipe them out?

"Look, kid," Logan said, "I don't get why you're so worried about hurting the Yeerks, even if a couple of 'em aren't so bad. They don't seem to have any qualms about hurtin' us."

"That's just it," Cassie said. "How can we fight them without being as bad as they are? And how can we blame them for wanting host bodies? They're blind and deaf and helpless in their natural state."

"So are you volunteering to be a host body?" Logan asked.

"Well, no," she said.

"Cassie," Professor Xavier said, "I completely understand your aversion to war. I share it with you, and I commend your empathy for the Yeerks. It's an admirable quality." He paused. "Cassie, you've been fighting for a long time. Are you sure you want to continue? There is no dishonor in stepping out. We will help your friends."

She laughed, "Oh, I'd love to quit. But I tried it once and I couldn't take it. As long as the Yeerks are here, I'll fight them. I suppose I sound hopelessly naïve, but I just… I just want you all to know that it's not all black and white, you know?"

The Professor smiled at her, kindly. "Few things in this world are, Cassie."

Wasn't that the truth? It seemed clear to me that it was our duty to join this fight. It seemed equally clear that doing so would endanger our kids here at the school. Less clear was whether or not we were engaging in a winnable war.

"OK. Jake, what do you think our priorities here should be?" I asked. I hoped we could talk strategy without interference from Cassie. It seemed plain enough to me that we were going to have to kill a few Yeerks if we wanted them to leave Earth.

Jake sat up a little straighter in his seat. "I think a definite priority will be preventing the Yeerks from getting their hands on too many mutant-Controllers. Is there… could you spread the word to the mutant community somehow, that they should stay away from the Sharing?"

Charles nodded. "I have some key contacts. I'll pass this information on."

"Thanks," Jake said. "Next…well, I do think we're going to have to go for something big. Go after the Yeerk pool somehow. If we can up the ante, make Earth seem too dangerous, maybe the Yeerks will leave. If not, at least there will be fewer Yeerks around. I also think Visser Three needs to be a definite target. We've tried to take him down a couple times, but I think we should make another effort. Obviously, this alone won't stop the invasion—another visser will just take his place—but it will send a strong message to the Yeerks, that their leader, their most well-protected man, can be taken down."

"Tell me more about the Yeerk pool," I asked. "Is there only one of them?"

Jake frowned. "Honestly, I'd only ever worried about the one in our town, but I suppose there must be more. They're very large, so it's not like there's one on every block, but I'd guess most metropolitan areas where the Yeerks have a strong presence must have one."

The boy android, Erek, nodded. "As far as Chee intelligence knows, there are 45 large-scale Yeerk pools in the United States. They are quite an undertaking to build. Wide-scale production of portable Kandrona ray emitters would render the Yeerk pools obsolete. The Animorphs already stopped one attempt at mass production of these devices, but we fear they will try again."

Jake looked thoughtful. "Erek, is there a Yeerk pool nearby?"

"Yes," Erek replied, "There is one beneath New York City."

"OK," Jake said, "Is it pretty comparable to the one in our city?"

"Yes. It is a little larger, but we believe security is a little more lax. The invasion isn't as strong here and, of course, they believe themselves to be far from the Andalite resistance."

Jake nodded. "What if we hit this Yeerk pool hard? It'll shake the Yeerks up—they'll suffer casualties and be shaken up, they're not expecting something so far from our known center of operation. They might start spreading their defenses more thinly."

Marco interjected, "What do you mean by hitting it hard, Jake? Every time we've gone down there, we've been lucky to escape with our lives."

"Tell me more about the layout of a Yeerk pool." I said.

Jake began explaining the vast underground cavern, the entrances shielded by Gleet Bio-Filters, the hordes of armed Hork-Bajir and Taxxon guards. The central pool, the piers, the rows of cages. Grim.

"Ideally," he said, "We want to do something to attack only the pool itself, not the cages."

"Agreed," I said. "Tell me, what if the pool were frozen?"

(Yeerks outside of a host body would not survive being frozen,) Ax said.

"And how big, exactly, is this pool?" I was forming a plan.

"About the size of a big pond," Jake said, "About 100 feet wide. What are you thinking of?"

I sighed. Bobby was so young, but he was older than these guys by at least 5 years. "There's a mutant here—an older student, and one of the new X-Men trainees—whose power is to control ice. I don't think he's strong enough to freeze something so big, but maybe if Storm could help…"

Ororo nodded. "I don't do my best work underground, but I could at least lower the room temperature fairly substantially, which should make Bobby's task easier."

"You guys can practice in the swimming pool," I said.

"This sounds like it could work," Jake said. "But how are we going to get in? Erek, tell us what you know about possible entrances."

"Well, all the entrances have Gleet Bio-Filters, of course, so only the authorized lifeforms can enter. It's beneath the city proper and most of the entrances and exits use the subway. A good bit of the pool is under Central Park. Theoretically, you could tunnel somewhere through there."

"No one's gonna notice a bunch of kids tunneling in Central Park?" asked Logan.

"It **is** New York," Jean said wryly.

"I believe my father and I could assist with that aspect, if necessary," Erek said.

"How?" I asked.

"We can easily extend our holograms to enclose a suitable amount of space for tunneling," he said.

Of course. Holograms. Why didn't I think of that? I swear I never thought my life could get any weirder.

"I was really hoping to never morph Taxxon ever again," said Tobias.

(I quite agree with that sentiment,) said Ax.

"We could do mole again," Rachel said.

Cassie looked thoughtful. "There is another way… I don't know if it's better than tunneling, but…"

"What is it?" Jake asked.

"Well," she said, "I've done it once before…the Gleet Bio-Filter only accepts a human with a Yeerk, right? So…we could give them that." She fidgeted.

"You want us to put Yeerks in our heads?" Logan demanded. "Kid, are you nuts?"

"Well, the Yeerks would be us," she said. "And if you aren't comfortable with it, we'll find another way."

"If we tunnel down," I said, "What are we going to do when we get to the ceiling of the pool?"

"Well…we'd morph birds. Or bats maybe," Jake said. "We brought the morphing cube, we can make you guys morph-capable if you want. The thing about that, though, is that then we'd have to find a place to demorph and get you guys close enough to the pool to freeze it. With Cassie's idea, it's a lot easier to be stealthy—we'd be exactly what we were supposed to be, and you could do a lot of damage to the pool before anyone suspected anything—and before anyone tried a counterattack."

I rubbed my forehead tiredly. Jean patted my knee under the table. I didn't like the idea of a Yeerk in my head any better than Logan did, even a friendly one. But Jake was right, it did sound like the best way to do it.

"Well," I said, "I'm not crazy about having one of you guys in my head, but I'd definitely prefer it to having a real Yeerk in there for the rest of my life. I think we should go in that way."

"I agree," Jean said.

Ororo shrugged gracefully, as only she can. "I suppose it can't be too different from living with telepaths all these years."

"Well, hell," Logan said, "I can't let you guys have all the fun."

Jake paused, then said awkwardly, "Uh, Hank and Professor Xavier… you two would both be very conspicuous in the Yeerk pool in your natural forms."

"I shall be quite content to remain at the school for all of this," the Professor said. He'd never been part of the field team, anyway.

"I can stay back, too," Hank said. "It will be best if there are multiple adults here, after all."

I nodded. "I think we can get by without you on this one, Hank. Alright, so that's me, Jean, Storm, Wolverine, and Iceman, and 6 potential Yeerks. I think…" I hated what I was about to say. "…I think we should ask Shadowcat to join the team on this one, too. I know she's still young, but I think her powers could come in handy if we need to make a quick exit."

Charles nodded. "I agree, Cyclops. And I believe Kitty will be quite willing to fight."

I sighed. They were all willing to fight, but I wanted dearly to keep the junior X-Men out of combat as much as I could.

"What are Shadowcat's abilities?" Jake asked.

"She can phase through solid matter," I said. "Walls, furniture, the ground… and she can usually take someone with her." I wished Nightcrawler were still with us. I respected his decision to return to Germany, especially after all he'd been through with Stryker, but teleporters were so handy. There was Blink, of course, but I'm far more willing to send 18-year-old Kitty into battle than 13-year-old, untrained, Blink.

Jake nodded, impressed.

"That is so cool," Marco said, reminding me that I was already preparing to go into battle with untrained 13-year-olds.

"There's another thing," Jake said. "I think all of you should become morph capable even though you're all going in as human. The thing about morphing is that doing it repairs injuries. It restores your body from its own DNA. So if any of you get hurt too badly, you can morph and heal yourself."

"That's handy," I said.

"I don't need it, Bub," said Logan.

"Also, Logan, I don't know how morphing might work with your altered skeletal structure. That's not part of your DNA," Jean said.

"What happened to your skeleton?" Cassie asked.

"It got dipped in adamantium," Logan said.

"It's the strongest metal alloy in existence," Jean explained. "It renders Logan's bones virtually unbreakable, in addition to Logan's natural healing factor."

Cassie nodded. "That is helpful, especially since I think Jean is right—I don't think you'll be able to morph. When we got chips implanted into our brains as sharks, we couldn't morph anything smaller than the chip—it would have ripped our insect bodies apart if we hadn't reversed morph."

"That is so goddamn weird," Logan said.

"Says the guy with the metal skeleton?" said Marco.

"Well," Jake said, "We might as well give Logan morphing abilities anyway. We won't count on him being able to morph, but if something comes up, he'll be prepared to try."

"So—morphing restores someone to their original DNA pattern?" Hank asked, thinly veiling the eagerness in his voice.

(It is a little more complex than that,) Ax said condescendingly. (But essentially, yes.)

I knew what Hank was thinking—he could restore himself to his pre-blue state. He had seemingly adapted to his new color, but I supposed he would appreciate a return to normal. Whatever that meant around here.

"Professor Xavier," Cassie said respectfully, I don't know if you've been disabled since birth or if it's from an injury, but…if you morphed, you might be able to walk again."

The Professor nodded calmly. "I suppose I would like to try," he said. I hoped it worked. Charles had done so much for others, it would only be karmic justice if this alien technology could do something for him.

"OK," I said, "Let's do it."

"Hey, that's Rachel's line," said Marco.

Rachel laughed. "Well, in the name of teamwork, I guess I could let someone else say it. Just this once."


	15. Chapter 15

Chapter 15

Chapter 15

Author's note: I was inspired to start writing this because I started a project of re-reading the Animorphs series. Apparently, I should have waited until I FINISHED reading the series, since it turns out I forgot a lot of stuff that gets revealed at the end of the series. Such as the fact that there is only one Yeerk pool? So, sorry this story is inaccurate in that regard. I would offer, however, that it doesn't make that much sense that the Yeerks were invading for like 10 years and only got around to building one Yeerk pool, which is why I assumed they had more. I mean, really. Anyway, if you are a huge stickler for accuracy, you probably shouldn't be reading fanfiction anyway ;)

--

Marco insisted that, "To make it official," I had to say "Let's do it" before we gave the morphing cube to the X-Men. So I did.

"Let's do it! Happy now, Marco?"

"Thrilled," he said.

"You guys should definitely acquire bird morphs," Cassie said. "Plus a cockroach or fly, and some kind of good battle morph…"

"We already are battle morphs," Jean joked.

"What do you mean, 'acquire'?" asked Scott.

Cassie patiently gave them all a lesson in morphing, with a little help from Tobias.

(You guys can acquire me,) Tobias said. (This hawk is my normal shape, not a morph, so it'll work.)

"This is seriously so goddamn weird," Logan said.

"Wait 'til you see somebody morph fly," I said.

It was fun watching them all morph for the first time, like seeing a kid learn how to ride a bike or something. None of them morphed especially gracefully—nothing like Cassie—but they all got to hawk OK. Soon 5 identical red-tailed-hawks joined Tobias, flapping around anxiously on the smooth metal floor.

(I feel the hawk mind, just like you described, Tobias,) Jean said. (And it really does not like being here.)

(Yeah, we probably should have done this outside,) he said.

"You guys should morph back," Jake said. "You can practice outside later."

"Just concentrate on your human selves," Cassie coached.

Jean fully demorphed first. Her beak was the last thing to go. "Wow!" she said, marveling at her hands.

Logan stared at her and she realized most of her clothes were on the floor.

"Logan! Avert your eyes," she scolded.

The others followed her back to human. Professor Xavier stood on his two feet, looking awestruck.

"Hey, Fuzzball, you're still blue," Logan told Hank.

Hank sighed. "I suppose my accident must have mutated my very DNA. That will teach me a very valuable lesson about laboratory safety."

"Anyway, blue is definitely your color," Jean said with a smile.

(It is a most excellent color,) Ax agreed.

"Yes, I suppose I am in good company," Hank said. "A pity Herr Wagner didn't stick around."

"OK," Scott said, "I guess we should debrief Kitty and Bobby."

"I'll call them down here," Professor Xavier said.

I didn't look forward to explaining our whole story again; it was so time consuming. But the newcomers, Bobby and Kitty—and what kinds of names were those? Was this a 1953 sockhop?—seemed receptive, and it went relatively quickly. I'm sure it helped that we had adults—telepathic adults, one of whom had just been miraculously healed—on our side this time around.

"And you want us to help?" Bobby asked, practically glowing with pride.

"This is so cool," Kitty said.

"It's cool," Jake acknowledged, "But it's dangerous. It's not a game."

Bobby looked a little subdued. "Yeah, you're right, man. It's just that we've been training with our powers for so long, I want to use them, you know?"

I knew.

"I think we'd better get some lunch," Ororo said.

"Professor, what are you going to tell the students about your legs?" Bobby asked.

Professor Xavier looked thoughtful. "I don't know. I shouldn't like to lie to the students, but I don't know that I should tell the whole truth, either."

"How old are the kids here?" asked Jake. "Can you trust them to keep a secret?"

"They have a lot of practice at secret-keeping," Xavier said dryly. "Most are teenagers, since that's when mutations tend to develop. However, there are a few students as young as 10. For me, the issue is not whether my students can be trusted, but whether or not to burden them with this knowledge."

"If you're sure you can trust them, you should tell them," I said. "The way things are going, they're going to find out sooner or later. It may as well be now."

"I agree," said Kitty. "We can usually tell when the teachers are hiding stuff from us, and we don't like it."

"Very well," said Xavier. "Then I suppose we shall have to call a school meeting after lunch."

"Man, we never have assemblies like that in public school," Marco said. "They're always like 'Don't do drugs! Go team!' and never, ever about impending alien invasions."

"Private school definitely has its perks," Bobby said with a laugh. He looked so familiar, somehow. Like he could be Jake's brother.

"Speaking of perks," said Kitty, "Today's pizza for lunch! Let's go."

So we headed up to the main dining room with the rest of the group, feeling more hopeful about the war against the Yeerks than we had in a long time.


	16. Chapter 16

Chapter 16

Chapter 16

I slipped by the mansion's indoor swimming pool not because I especially like swimming—thanks to my metal skeleton, I ain't exactly buoyant—but because I wanted to see how Stormy and the kid were doing at their freezing project. It was a pity that Pyro had defected to that lunatic Magneto, because the more I learned about the Yeerks, the more I wanted to burn the whole place to the ground. Those Animorph kids sure knew what they were doing when they came to ask us for help; most of us have already been robbed of our free will at least once and none of us are anxious to lose it again.

The pool was looking pretty damn frozen to me, though Bobby looked pale and was leaning against the wall. Ro looked a little worn-out, too, and her eyes were whited out.

"Looks good," I said.

Bobby brightened when he saw me. "I think we're definitely going to be able to do it," he said. "Jake told us the Yeerk pool is a little smaller and shallower than this, so if we can do this, we can definitely do the Yeerk pool. I'm hoping we can get the whole thing frozen solid—then it'll damage the shell of the pool, too.

I nodded. It all seemed simple enough, which worried me. But I figured if these animal-kids had survived fights down in a Yeerk pool, surely we could. And if any of us were taken by a Yeerk, Chuck would be able to tell, and Hank or Jean would drug us up for three days until the Yeerk died. No problem. Except…what if the Professor couldn't tell if we were Controllers? Nah, of course he'll be able to tell. I might not hero-worship the guy like One-Eye does, but he's definitely good at poking around people's heads.

"Ro, how you doing?" I asked.

"Reasonably well," she responded. Her eyes were back to normal, and the room was starting to feel a little warmer. "It took us five minutes this time, which is a marked improvement over our first attempts. I'd like for us to shave a minute or so off that if we can, but for now, this is acceptable. I can only hope that we can keep up this level of concentration underground, and possibly under fire."

Bobby's face fell a little at that.

"Well, we'll have your backs," I said.

"You'd best," Ororo replied.

I grinned at her. "Anyway, I'll let you guys get back to practicing for the Winter Olympics. I'm gonna go see how they're doin' down in the basement."

With help from the two Chee, Hank had finished his combat simulator project remarkably quickly. He called it the Danger Room, although it was a lot safer than before, when the kids just practiced hand-to-hand combat with me and Scott.

The red light outside the door was on, meaning the room was occupied. I went up top to watch from the observation balcony. A field of bizarre-looking Hork-Bajir were storming around. Cyke was knocking 'em down with his beams, looking less ridiculous in his colorful new outfit than I'd have expected. Since our usual black leather was too hard to morph, Hank had procured some bright Spandex for us. We planned to wear these costumes beneath regular street clothes so we'd be less conspicuous, but would have something to preserve our modesty if we had to morph.

Meanwhile, an equally-colorful tiger was leaping at a pair of Hork-Bajir. Kitty was standing behind Scott, ready to jump in if anyone needed to be phased away. Where was Jean? I knew she'd been running these drills too. Then I saw—she was jumping and clawing some disgusting Taxxons, as a lioness. She'd figured her powers weren't always helpful in combat, so she'd been experimenting with morphs, following our late-night trip to the zoo. I'd "acquired" a few things, too, although I still hadn't tried morphing yet. Cassie had suggested that if I needed to morph, maybe something bigger than me wouldn't mess up my skeleton, so I got an elephant and a grizzly bear. Was hopin' to get a wolverine, too, just for the fun of it, but the zoo didn't have any. Oh well, I guess I don't need to be the same thing twice.


	17. Chapter 17

Chapter 17

Chapter 17

I circled the Danger Room, watching the battle. Occasionally, I dove down and clawed at a few holographic Taxxons, but mostly I just watched with my hawk eyes. We were all impressed with the X-Men—though, of course, they'd been training as soldiers before, unlike us.

(How's it looking up there, Tobias?) Jake asked. I was supposed to be watching for weaknesses.

(Why don't Cyclops and Shadowcat stand back to back?) I said. (Then he's still covering her, but she can watch his back.)

(Good idea,) Jake said. He must have relayed it by private thoughtspeak, because I saw them change positions.

(Also, how come we don't have cool codenames like they do? It's a major strategic weakness.)

(You already have one, Bird-Boy.)

(Ha-ha,) I said. (Anyway, things look good—but, of course, we're missing a big part of our battle plan.)

(Yeah,) Jake said. (We need to get Storm and Iceman in here so we can practice with them.)

(Plus Wolverine,) I said.

Wolverine scared me a little, maybe because I could relate to him so well. From what I'd learned about him, his life had had a lot in common with my life as a hawk. We were both predators, me and Wolverine. And we were both survivors. But survival had its costs.

I gave myself a mental shake. Focus, Tobias. You can indulge in self-reflection no your own time. I focused on the battle again, swooped down at a Hork-Bajir's eyes just in time to save Marco's back.

(Thanks, dude,) he said.

I saw Cyclops nod, I guess in response to private thoughtspeak. He called out the code to stop the simulation. The Controllers froze in place, the virtual corpses remained on the floor. Jake demorphed and began patrolling the field with Cyclops. The Danger Room was huge, though not as big as the Yeerk Pool. This building was amazing. I wondered how many times bigger their budget was than my public school's. Probably hundreds. But then, my school also didn't have its own superhero team. Well, I guess it has us.

"Good job, everyone. Let's move to the War Room to debrief," Cyclops said. The simulation powered down fully, and we were standing in a bare room with gym-mat floors, plain metal walls, and no sign of the epic battle that had just been raging.

"Can we change first?" Jean asked. "I can't take myself seriously in this outfit." The X-Men might have more battle experience than we do, but we were way ahead of them in number of logged Spandex hours.

Cyclops nodded. "OK, everybody take 10 to change, then to the War Room."

I decided to morph human. Although the X-Men were polite, I could tell it kind of weirded them out to talk to a bird all the time. Plus, the hawk wasn't crazy about being indoors and underground. I went upstairs with the others and borrowed some of Marco's spare clothes, then went back down to the War Room.

I perched a little awkwardly on my smooth metal chair. Jean smiled at me. "Nice to see you, Tobias."

I smiled back, though I'm still not that used to the sensation of stretching my lips.

"Alright. Today was good," Cyclops said. "No casualties on our side, which is always good to say. But let's not get cocky—our success is going to depend on all of us working as a team. We'll need to stay sharp and keep watching each other's backs." He turned to Jake. I had to admire the way Cyclops—a grownup and one with experience leading his own team—was willing to share leadership with Jake. I mean, I'd follow Jake anywhere, but he's definitely a kid.

"Just a reminder," Jake said, "With the Taxxons, you don't need to worry about killing them. Just cut them up a little and another Taxxon will finish them off for a snack."

"So gross," Kitty said.

"Very gross," Jake agreed. "But pretty convenient when you're trying to fight them."

Cyclops nodded. "Good point. And really, we want to minimize casualties—outside of the pool itself—as much as possible. We're gonna get in, get the pool, and get out."

"We should do some more sims of getting out. Traditionally, that part has been a little tricky," Jake said dryly.

"Alright. We'll run that this afternoon. We'll get Storm and Iceman involved, too, so we can practice defending them."

"When are we going in for the real attack?" Jean asked.

"We're aiming for Thursday night," Cyclops said. "The Chee tell us that's the peak time at the pool, since a lot of Controllers hold down jobs during the day, and a lot of them need to be prepared to travel over the weekend."

It was Monday, which gave us four days. Way more time than we usually get prepare for missions.

"Any more questions?" asked Cyclops. We were quiet. "OK, then let's break and get ready for classes." The adult X-Men were still teaching class, and Professor Xavier had asked us to attend classes when we could while we were here. He said he didn't like to think of us missing so much school. I'd already missed way more school than this, but I liked returning to class, even for just a few days. It was refreshingly normal, even if my chemistry teacher—and my lab partner—were blue.


	18. Chapter 18

Chapter 18

Chapter 18

"Storm, it is freezing in here," complained Shadowcat.

"That's rather the point," I said. I did not appreciate the interruption. I was still unused to the Danger Room, and this simulation was particularly unsettling. I was standing in a long line of people, all of whom were waiting to release their Yeerks into the pool. I felt a stab of regret as I realized that everyone behind me in the line would not be freed. We would have to make several trips to the Yeerk pool. This was only a simulation, and it was still intolerable.

I glanced at Bobby, who was a little ahead of me in line. This pool, of course, was digital, but he was working on freezing the moisture out of the air itself, just to practice using his gift.

In truth, we didn't know how this would play out. Ideally, we could freeze the whole pool before anyone realized who we were. But things rarely worked out ideally, and we were counting on a fight. In our simulation, we'd decided to give ourselves three minutes before the Yeerks noticed that something was up. Then, to distract the Yeerks from the real cause of the freezing—Iceman and myself—the Animorphs, in their "battle morphs," would launch an attack on the Taxxons and Hork-Bajir. Wolverine, Cyclops, and Jean would help. Kitty would lie low unless necessary. Then, when we'd completed our mission, we would dash back out the way we came, after Kitty phased through the BioFilter and disabled it.

The three-minute mark must have passed, since a number of wild animals suddenly ran at the aliens. I did my best to blend in with my line. Some of the simulated Controllers pulled out concealed weapons and began blasting the animals. Others simply tried to avoid the fire. I fell in with these and continued summoning cold. Snow began to fall.

(Storm, can you put your arms back down by your side?) asked Tobias. (You look kind of obvious.)

I did so; I hadn't even realized I'd outstretched them. Jean teased me about my dramatic gestures, but to me they felt natural.

(It has been five of your minutes,) Ax announced. We gave ourselves five minutes to freeze the pool, although Bobby and I were down to four for the swimming pool.

Cyclops turned his beams on the pool, hoping to further weaken its structural integrity after the freezing.

Then we went for the door. Seeing me run, I began to be a target from the Controllers. I brought a mist to cloak myself and my teammates, which only added to the Yeerk chaos. Kitty disabled the BioFilter and we flew up the dropshaft—I still didn't understand how this worked, but Ax assured me that it would lift us up to our destination. Once we reached the subway, we did not believe the Yeerks would pursue us. It would be too public.

We ended the simulation and took stock. Once again, we'd all survived the sim. The attack was scheduled for tomorrow night, and we all appeared ready for battle.


	19. Chapter 19

Chapter 19

Chapter 19

"I can't believe I overlooked this plan's fatal flaw," I grumbled. "We ask a bunch of teachers to help us, they're gonna give us homework."

"It's not so bad, Marco," Tobias said.

"Easy for you to say," I retorted. "You haven't done any homework in what, a year? I, on the other hand, was looking forward to a brief respite from the never-ending grind of homework."

"Well, we've all got our problems. I mean, I haven't held a pencil in about a year. My hand is getting wicked cramped," Tobias admitted.

"You don't think we could get the Chee to do this for us, do you?" I asked.

"They're already doing one set of homework for us back home," Jake said. "Two would probably be pushing it."

"Point," I conceded reluctantly.

(Is this math meant to be challenging?) Ax asked.

"It's not too bad," I said. "You just have to set up two equations and then define y in terms of x."

(Is that human humor?) he asked.

I sighed. "Forget I said anything. I'm sure you Andalites have your own hyper-advanced form of algebra that puts mere human algebra to shame."

(Well,) Ax began.

"No, no, please don't explain. I'm barely okay with silly little Earth algebra, I don't need to get alien math up in my head, too."

(If you insist, I shall not interfere with your ignorance.)

"Are you even using a calculator, dude?" Tobias asked.

(For this assignment? It is not necessary.) Ax said.

"I am so glad I never tried doing homework with you before, Ax-man," I said.

(I regret not learning more about your attempts at math earlier. It certainly helps explain why your technology is so backwards.)

With conscious effort, I made no reply. I knew Ax would keep talking about our inferior planet for weeks if I kept responding. I finished my math sheet using my pitiful Earth equations and moved onto English. _Animal Farm_—Xavier's idea of a joke? I read the first few chapters, then set the book down with a sigh. "I can't believe how much homework I'm doing like five hours before we attack a Yeerk pool. I mean, it's not like my last words are going to be about George Orwell's central thesis."

"Well, your last words aren't going to be tonight," Jake said. "I mean, I don't want us to get cocky or anything, but we're definitely better prepared fore this mission than anything else we've done."

(Yes, and we will be aided by the excellent abilities of the X-Men,) Ax said.

I considered making a joke about transsexuals, but decided I didn't want to have to explain I to Ax.

I did honestly feel pretty confident about the attack, which was itself worrying. But I supposed there wasn't too much point worrying about it—and definitely no point wasting all my good jokes on such a small audience.

We passed another hour on homework, then went down to play some video games before dinner. When we got to the rec room, Jonathan the Chee was kicking butt at Mario Kart.

"Whew, I've pretty much had it with losing to you at this game," said a white girl with a Southern accent. "How about if I start losing to you at Smash Brothers?"

"Sorry," Jonathan said, "I don't like fighting games. But somebody else can take my controller if you guys want to switch games."

"Yeah, let's," said an Asian girl with huge yellow earrings.

A boy with white hair raced to the GameCube, changed the disc, and was back on the couch in under 10 seconds.

"You're such a showoff, Pietro," the Asian girl said.

"Maybe I just don't like to spend any more time away from you than I have to," he replied.

"Oh, gimme a break!" she said, but she was smiling. Then she turned to us. "Hey, new guys, any of you want to play?"

I flashed my most charming (which is to say, _very_ charming) smile and said, "Hey, Marco's my name, Super Smash Brothers is my game."

"I'm Jubilee," the Asian girl said. That's Pietro, Rogue, and Jonathan."

"Nice to meet you," I said.

"So you guys must be the, um, Animorphs the Professor told us about?" Rogue asked.

My first instinct was to deny it—Animorphs? Yeerks? Of course I don't know anything about that. But, I reminded myself, we'd decided to trust them. So I said, "Yeah, that's us. There's Jake, Tobias, and Ax. Rachel and Cassie are outside, I think."

"And Ax is the alien, right?" asked Jubilee.

"I am an Andalite. Lite, light, your language has many words that sound alike."

"You don't look like an alien;" Pietro said.

"Don't be rude," Rogue scolded.

"No, he is correct. This is not my normal appearance. Presently I am in my human morph. This is why I am talking with my mouth."

"Right…" said Jubilee.

"Can we see what you really look like?" asked Pietro.

Ax hesitated, then said, "Well, I will need to demorph within an hour anyway. Please, do not be frightened by the morphing process."

He carefully took off his shoes and jeans, leaving on bike shorts and a T-shirt. Then he began morphing. First, a pair of stalk eyes shot up through the top of his human head. The morph proceeded downward for awhile, quickly reclaiming Ax's mouth. Then, suddenly, his tail shot out his back. The morph was basically going the creepiest way possible, but the X-kids didn't seem grossed out, just interested.

"This is so much cooler than when Mystique does it," Rogue said.

"Oh look, he's like a centaur!" Jubilee said.

"Like if Dr. McCoy were a centaur," Pietro said.

To my dismay, the video game was utterly forgotten in the wake of Ax's demorph. It was nice to see people react to us—to Ax—with awe, rather than fear. I guess they probably felt the same way about their abilities.

We showed off to each other until dinner, which was once again delicious. Ax was never going to want to leave this place. Afterwards, we met up with the rest of the team before heading out to the Yeerk pool. The basement War Room was definitely a step up from Cassie's barn, as far as pre-battle meetup sites went. It had chairs instead of hay bales, and the only squawking animal was Tobias—who, to be fair, generally didn't squawk that much.


	20. Chapter 20

Chapter 20

Chapter 20

"OK. Let's do a quick review of our plan before we head out," Cyclops said. "We're going to head to the commuter train station in Westchester and go into the city. From there, we'll get on the subway and take it to the 42nd Street stop. We'll get off the train, find a place where the Animorphs can morph Yeerks and, uh, infest us. Then, one at a time, we'll go up to the Information booth and ask him if he can tell us how to get to Sesame Street."

"Gotta love that Yeerk sense of humor," Marco said.

Scott ignored him, continuing, "Then he'll let us into the Yeerk pool via a hidden dropshaft. One through, we'll find a place to leave the Yeerk-Animorphs so they can get demorph and remorph. The rest of us will proceed orderly into the…infestation pier."

It didn't take a telepath to see that Scott was disgusted, and understandably so.

He continued, "Storm and Iceman will immediately begin working on freezing the pool. We'll give them a couple minutes to get started, then the rest of us will begin an attack to distract attention from them. We'll focus on the guards at the end of the pier, to keep them from looking too closely at the pool's surface. Once the pool is completely frozen, I'll blast it to do as much damage as possible. Meanwhile, Kitty will break from the line and disable the BioFilter, and we'll be able to make a retreat without being disintegrated.

"That's definitely my preferred way to retreat," Marco said.

This kid was as bad as Logan. Well, not exactly—he was less hostile. It seemed like he might be joking out of nervousness, and perhaps this was why Scott let his comments slide. I was grateful for this; I loved Scott, but I hated the way he and Logan got around each other. They were like little boys. Worse than little boys, if these Animorphs were anything to judge by.

Again, Scott ignored Marco and continued. "If we get split up during the retreat, we'll rendezvous in Times Square. Try to look like tourists."

I waited for a joke from someone, but neither Marco nor Logan rose to it.

"Any questions?" Scott asked, after a pause. Evidently, he'd been waiting for a joke, too.

"How come we aren't using that awesome jet you guys have?" Rachel asked.

"Rachel, you can turn into a bald eagle at will, and you want to take a jet?" asked Tobias.

"Well, yeah. Did you see it? It's beautiful."

"A girl after my own heart," Scott said. "But there's no need to take the jet out—it's way too conspicuous for downtown New York."

"Yeah, I know. But I can dream, right?" Rachel replied.

"I'll take you up for a ride sometime," Scott said. "Sometime after we destroy this Yeerk Pool."

"Well, this is precious," Logan said. "But how about if we moon over military aircraft after we kick some Yeerk ass?"

"Oh my God, there are two Rachels," Marco said. "Again."

Scott held up his hand. "OK, OK, let's get moving."

"Let's do it!" said Rachel, already getting to her feet.

"We'll take three cars. Storm, Jean, and I will drive," Scott said. It was an insult to Logan; I prayed Logan wouldn't make anything out of it.

"Still pissed I took your bike, huh, One-Eye?" Logan said, but he sounded good-natured enough. "I call shotgun in Jean's car."

Good grief.

"Fine, but Jean's car is leaving right now," I said. We made our way to the garage without further incident. Rachel and Tobias piled into the backseat.

"So, you kids have been fighting the Yeerks for awhile, huh?" Logan asked.

"Um, yeah," Rachel said, as if she were talking to someone exceptionally slow. "That's kind of why we're here."

"Don't get touchy, kid, I was just asking. Still seems funny that a buncha junior high kids are out fighting alien overlords."

"Well, it seems funny to me that you're a grown man who calls himself Wolverine, but I was willing to be polite about it," Rachel said.

Logan laughed. "I like this kid."

"Well, this kid doesn't especially care if you like her or not, just as long as you help her kick Yeerk butt."

I fought back a smile. This kid was tough.

Logan shrugged. "Fair enough," he said. "Just so happens I'm pretty good at kickin' butt."

"Good," said Rachel. "Because so are the Hork-Bajir."

"We're here," I said, pulling into a parking spot at the train station. "Everybody try to act normal."

"You mean don't act like guerrilla warriors fighting off an alien invasion?" Logan asked.

"Yes, exactly," I said.

"Also, try not to be so Canadian," Rachel said sweetly.

Logan showed her his middle claw, but Rachel wasn't impressed. She had claws of her own.

The station was crowded, but mostly with commuters arriving home. Tobias looked nervous, and stayed close to Rachel. It must be hard for him to be in a crowd; the poor boy always looked so lost whenever he was human.

We didn't want to be identified as a group with the others, so the four of us bought our tickets and boarded the mostly-empty first car of the inbound train. I sensed the others nearby, but didn't see them.

We were quiet on the way in. Obviously, we couldn't talk about our mission in public, and it seemed none of us felt like talking about anything else. Logan couldn't even be bothered to flirt with me, or to tease Rachel and Tobias about holding hands. We got into the city, transferred lines, and got off at 42nd Street, just as planned. We began looking around for a hidden place for the kids to morph Yeerks. We didn't find anything below ground that looked safe, so we headed up the stairs.

"Ah, my old friend the Dumpster," Tobias said.

"Let's do it behind it, not in it," Rachel said. "We'll go behind, you two stand to the sides and guard. When we're done, pick us up and, uh, hold us to your ear. Sorry, I know it's gross."

It was gross, and I was not at all looking forward to it. But, I kept reminding myself, it was for the good of mankind.

I stood with my back to the edge of the Dumpster, trying to look casual. Luckily, it was New York, and no one really paid attention to us. Probably New Yorkers wouldn't have turned their heads if Rachel had started turning into a big slug right in the middle of the sidewalk, but better safe than sorry.

(OK, I'm done,) said Rachel. (Yuck.)

I turned around and saw a big slug and an even creepier half-slug, half-bird.

"Ugh," I said, but I picked up the Yeerk and held it to my ear.

(I am really sorry for what I'm about to do,) she said.

_It's okay,_ I told her telepathically, unsure if Yeerks could hear. I felt a sharp pain in my ear, then nothing. The Animorphs had told us about the numbing chemical Yeerks secreted. Scientifically fascinating, but unpleasant in practice. I could feel Rachel crawling over my brain, but it didn't hurt.

(Um, hi,) Rachel said. It was strange—not quite like in-morph thoughtspeak, not quite like telepathy, either. Rachel was communicating directly with my brain.

(I'm trying not to take over, but it's what the Yeerk really wants to do. How's it going?) she asked.

I moved my head, took a small step forward. _OK, I guess,_ I said.

(How are Wolverine and Tobias?)

I peered through the gap between the Dumpster and the alley wall and saw Logan standing, looking confused. _Logan?_ I called. He looked over at me and nodded.

_They're OK,_ I told Rachel.

(I know,) she said sheepishly. (I can see everything you see. Sorry.)

_It's fine,_ I said, although I was uncomfortable and suspected Rachel could tell.

(Let's just go, OK? Clock's ticking on the morph, and I really, really don't want to be a Yeerk forever.)

I—we—headed back down into the subway, with Logan coming behind us. I took a deep breath and went to the Information booth.

"Could you tell me how to get to Sesame Street?" I asked. The attendant nodded and motioned me to the left. I took a step and the ground fell out beneath me, down to the Yeerk Pool.


	21. Chapter 21

Chapter 21

Chapter 21

I was the only one of the group who had morphed a Yeerk before, which didn't really make this experience any more pleasant for me. I was curled around Kitty Pryde's brain, trying desperately not to read her innermost thoughts. I saw through her eyes as she approached the Information booth, heard with her ears as she asked how to get to Sesame Street, and fell with her down the dropshaft to the Yeerk pool.

I could feel Kitty about to scream, but I reached around her mind and stopped her. (Sorry, Shadowcat,) I said. (But a Controller wouldn't scream in the dropshaft.)

(You're right, Cassie. Thanks,) she replied shakily. I could tell she was creeped out, but there was nothing I could do about it.

At the bottom of the dropshaft, we found a normal-looking door—although it was plenty weird that there was a door all the way down here anyway. We opened it, passed through the Gleet BioFilter without a problem, and entered a huge cavern.

(Don't stop and stare, just keep walking like you know where you're going. Look for a place to ditch me,) I instructed.

(This is horrible,) she said.

(I know,) I replied. (But don't show on your face that you think it's horrible.)

I could feel the effort she was putting into keeping a blank expression.

(Look to the right,) I said. (Bathrooms. Even Controllers have to go sometimes.)

She walked over and entered the furthest stall. I crawled out of her ear, and she picked me up off of her shoulder. (Close the toilet seat and set me on top of it,) I said. (You go get in line, I'll morph and meet you back out there.) If she said something, I couldn't hear, but I felt myself being set down on something smooth and plastic.

I morphed back quickly, relieved to no longer be a Yeerk. But I was a little at a loss. I wasn't sure where the others were, or how long they'd been here. I didn't want to morph and start a panic if the others weren't ready. I sat on the toilet and waited for a minute. Luckily, I heard Jean's voice in my head: _Animorphs. X-Men. Storm and Iceman are in position. Be ready for attack in 3 minutes._ For me, that meant going wolf. But I couldn't just morph wolf in this bathroom, someone else might come in. In fact, someone did come in, just then. I hoped they didn't notice my bare feet sticking out from the farthest stall.

I decided to leave the bathroom—how was I going to open the door as a wolf?—and look for a place to morph, hoping no one would notice my strange outfit in the meantime. Luckily, the edges of the Yeerk pool cavern were full of dark, isolated corners and hiding places. Poor design on their part—but I guess smoothing the walls of a rocky cavern seemed like unnecessary work, and lighting this whole place would have been a huge electricity bill.

I slipped into a crevice along the far side of the pool, opposite the infestation pier, and morphed. No one noticed me. I was glad for my fur—it was starting to get cold down there. I sniffed and found that Marco was pretty close to me, blending into a dirt mound left over from construction. The others were further, across the pool, but not far enough to hide from my keen wolf nose. I felt better having smelled my friends; it was strange to have started a mission without them.

(Everybody ready?) Jake asked.

(Ready as I'll ever be,) Marco grumbled.

(Hey, I was born ready,) Rachel said jauntily.

Tobias, Ax, and I all chimed in, although slightly less enthusiastically than Rachel.

Then Jean gave us the signal, and we burst out of hiding. Erek had been right—this pool was less defended than "our" pool. But there were still enough Hork-Bajir and Taxxons to make life difficult. I raced around the pool to the infestation pool and launched myself at a Hork-Bajir guard. A human-Controller fired a Dracon beam and singed my tail, but no major damage. Ax was behind me, and he knocked the weapon out of the man's hands with his tail.

(Thanks,) I said.

(My pleasure,) came his reply.

I saw that Wolverine had used his claws to cut open the holding cages, which only added to the chaotic scene. A few freed Hork-Bajir joined the fray on our side, not knowing our plans, but happy to fight the Yeerks.

Rachel, of course, was taking on about 10 Hork-Bajir at once. She was taking a lot of damage, though, and I worried about the hungry Taxxons approaching her. Just as I was about to lope over and help her, I saw Tobias swoop down and slash open a Taxxon with his talons. The others happily turned on him, devouring their brother.

(Rachel, you need to demorph!) I called.

(Our five minutes are almost up, anyway,) she replied, still ripping at a Taxxon.

I glanced at the pool. It looked like you could go ice skating on it. Cyclops turned his blasts on the pool's perimeter. (Guard Cyclops,) Jake called. (He's going to be their top target now.) Jake immediately followed his own command, knocking a human-Controller to the ground before she could fire a Dracon beam at him. Wolverine sliced two Dracon guns in half, one with each hand.

Jean took a bad hit from a Hork-Bajir. Her right arm was no longer attached to her body.

"Jean!" Cyclops yelled.

(She'll be fine after she morphs,) I told him. (Jean! Morph!)

She fell back to the side of the battle and began to morph. Ax had let all the X-Men acquire him for just this reason. She soon pranced back into battle, tentatively slicing at Controllers with her new tail.

Meanwhile, the pool was looking pretty decimated, and the wounded and dead Controllers were piling up. I felt nauseous at all the destruction, but hoped that it had at least bought some Controllers their freedom.

(OK, Shadowcat, get the BioFilter, and we're out of here,) Jake said.

She ran off, straight through any rocks or walls that were in her way. We began to follow.

"Don't let the Andalites get away!" I heard a voice cry out. I took a direct Dracon beam hit, burning a whole through my belly. I was too stunned to even feel pain. Marco scooped me up in his gorilla arms as he ran by.

(Thanks,) I said. (I feel funny…)

(Start morphing, Cassie!) he said.

(I like being a dolphin,) I said. (Can I be a dolphin?)

(Good grief,) Marco said. (Sure, you can be a dolphin. But first, you have to be a human. Cassie. The girl. C'mon.)

Human? Well, okay. I started morphing back. My fur disappeared. The hole in my stomach was closing up as Marco carried me up the dropshaft. By the top we got back up to the top, I was human and healthy. We came up into the subway station at the Information booth. The man looked surprised—there must be a different exit somewhere. Or maybe it was just the gorilla.

"Don't miss King Kong the Musical!" I said cheerily, as Marco roared. We then dashed up the stairs, found a good Dumpster for Marco to demorph in, and headed for Times Square, trying to look casual dressed in Spandex, which was no easy task.

Had the others gotten out alright? I'd been too focused on my own injury to pay attention. Marco said he had definitely seen Jean, Ax, and Tobias make it out ahead of us. I hoped Rachel was OK. She'd been looking rough the last time I'd seen her. I tried to reassure myself—Rachel was fine, she was always fine. And sure enough, I saw her blonde head scrutinizing a Gap billboard.

"That is like, my favorite store!" I said. She spun around and smiled at me.

"Is that where that leotard is from?" she asked. "Leotards are so in these days."

The three of us joked as we anxiously scanned the crowd for our friends. Soon, we heard a telepathic call from Jean, who summoned us over to meet near a newspaper stand. All 12 of us had made it out, thank God. We split back up into our smaller groups and headed back to Westchester, feeling tired, but content with our mission's success. I leaned my head on Jake's shoulder in the car ride back, thinking that the war seemed a little bit less hopeless with our new allies.


	22. Chapter 22

Chapter 22

Chapter 22

I was pacing around my office, something I hadn't done in over forty years. I was still having trouble believing that I could walk again. I had long, long ago given up hope of regaining my ability to walk and suddenly, some alien technology shows up and regenerates my damaged spinal cord? What a world.

Of course, along with the alien technology came involvement in a dangerous alien war. I regretted very much that my students were now involved in fighting the Yeerks. But we could hardly leave the war to the Animorphs. It would be unethical to leave fighting to a group of adolescents, now that we knew about it. Was it ethical to wish that I'd never heard of this war? That I was still in my wheelchair, still only concerned with the growing struggle between mutants and humans?

I supposed it didn't matter what I wished, as long as my actions were ethical. Was it ethical to send a 17-year-old girl out to fight dangerous aliens? Was it more ethical to wait for the aliens to come for her? What if Kitty Pryde died down there, fighting the aliens? I had seen images in the minds of the Animorphs. Those Hork-Bajir and Taxxons were fearsome. And yet not as fearsome as the unbearable idea of Yeerk infestation.

I looked at my watch. It was after 10. The X-Men should be back now. Was something wrong? They would have contacted me if something were wrong. That is, unless they were all unable to contact me. I had a communicator too, of course, but if they were still in combat, I did not want to distract them. I continued my pacing. The morphing technology really was amazing. My legs weren't even atrophied from years of disuse the way they should have been. They were perfect—or at least, as perfect as a man of my age could hope for. I was still bald, however.

Suddenly, I sensed the return of my team. I gently probed outwards; I found 12 healthy minds, although Bobby seemed to be asleep. Thank God.

I went downstairs to wait for them. They would be coming from the garage, up through the concealed basement entrance. I was stunned when I saw them. They all appeared perfectly healthy, just as they had been when they'd left, although Jean and the Animorphs were in Spandex.

"How did everything go?" I asked.

"The Yeerk pool is destroyed," Scott reported. "All the Yeerks inside were frozen to death, and I blasted the pool itself. It will take them awhile to rebuild."

"We also freed some Controllers," Jake said. "I think some of them may have escaped in the chaos."

"I lost my arm, but I grew a new one," Jean said with a wan smile.

Logan was carrying Bobby. "Kid was exhausted after freezing that whole place, he passed out on the way home. He did good, though." Bobby stirred.

"What? Oh… sorry… just so tired…" Logan set him down, although it didn't look like he was going to stay on his feet for much longer.

"Go to bed, Bobby," Scott said gently. "You did well, and now you need to rest."

Bobby looked like he was about to protest, but instead he nodded and went upstairs.

"I am relieved to see that you're all safe," I said. "And I am proud of your success. Rest, now, all of you. Tomorrow I would like to hear more about your mission." The group nodded and dispersed.

I went back up and continued pacing. A single thought was weighing heavily on my mind, the thought of my old friend Erik. I had already agreed to warn other mutants to avoid the Sharing. I was already spreading the word to certain contacts I had, various mutant advocacy groups. Of course I did not tell about the Yeerk invasion, but I invented stories of anti-mutant discrimination and violence from Sharing leaders. No one found my story hard to believe.

I knew warning Erik would turn the Sharing into another target for my friend's terrorism. I couldn't really hold that thought against my conscience; Erik would attack anti-mutant groups no matter what I told him, so I supposed it might as well be the Sharing. But what if I told him the truth about the Yeerks? Would he join us in fighting them? Would he ignore it as simply a human problem? Or would my ruthless friend join with the Yeerks to fight humans? No, impossible. He hadn't even liked sharing his mind with me as a friendly telepath. He certainly would never consent to being a Controller. And surely he would not trust the Yeerks to make an exception of him. Erik trusted no one.

Should I tell him? What if I didn't and he was taken as a Controller? His abilities would be devastating. Of course, his abilities were devastating in his own hands, so I doubted he could be taken against his will. But he had been taken before, and the Yeerks did have advanced technology. And Erik had rather made his abilities public knowledge, in a way that I myself had not. If Erik—or Mystique or Pyro—were taken, the secret of my school would be known to the Yeerks as well. We would almost certainly become a target for the Yeerks, if we weren't already.

I decided that I should definitely advise Erik against the Sharing—he and his Brotherhood came in contact with many mutants, including many who would never approach me or other mutant advocacy groups. But should I tell him about the Yeerks? Perhaps I should consult with the Animorphs. I did not like to keep secrets from my X-Men, but they did not know I was, on occasion, still in contact with Erik. They detested Magneto, and I could not blame them. But neither could I forget the years Erik and I had spent together, neither could I forget the way Erik had been, and what he had meant to me.

Yes, in the morning I would consult with the Animorphs. And with the X-Men. They need not know I still communicated with Erik, they only needed to give their opinion on whether we could count on the Brotherhood to fight the Yeerks or not.

I felt satisfied with my decision and walked to my bedroom. I marveled at how easy it was to put on my pajamas, how simple it was to swing my legs into bed. Of course, getting into bed more easily did not mean I could fall asleep more easily. I lay awake well into the night, unable to stop thinking about my students, about Erik, about the Yeerks, about the fate of humanity (including mutantkind, of course).


	23. Chapter 23

Chapter 23

Chapter 23

(Author's note: Hello to all two of you reading this, and sorry for the increasing delays between chapters. Basically my life has gotten a lot busier lately. I solemnly pledge that I will eventually finish this and that it will not end up just another unfinished story abandoned to the FFN graveyard. Thanks so much for reading and leaving feedback! )

I awoke early, lying on the floor between Jake and Marco's beds. I had slept fairly well, although I detest sleeping indoors. Andalites prefer to be in the open air as much as possible. But there was too much of a risk here that I would be seen by someone. I longed to return to my scoop in the woods. Even more, of course, I longed to return to my family's scoop on the Andalite homeworld, but I have nearly given up home of ever returning there. Jake and Marco were still asleep.

I decided not to wake them; they needed more rest than they had been receiving. Instead, I did something I don't often do—I morphed to harrier and flew out the room's open window. Andalites rarely morph for fun, but I am in a situation no other Andalite is in, so I suppose I am entitled to some unusual behavior. I spread my wings and soared over the mansion. I wasn't going anywhere in particular, and I tried to stay close to the school. I just needed to shed some of the restless energy I had. Perhaps I could find a secluded looking spot of woods and demorph for a bit.

(Ax? Is that you?) my shorm Tobias called. He was still perched in a tree outside the school, but with our superior vision we could easily see each other.

(Yes, Tobias. I did not think you were awake.)

(I'm a pretty light sleeper nowadays,) he said. His thoughtspeak sounded slightly sad. (Anyway, what are you up to?)

(I awoke before the others. I felt…restless. I am looking for a place where I might safely demorph for a while.)

(Mind if I come along? There's not a lot of good hunting around here, too many humans.)

(I would enjoy your company, my friend.) Tobias took flight from his tree and headed in my direction. We flew in companionable silence for perhaps 10 minutes. We flew over a small meadow, and Tobias dove down after a field mouse. I saw the mouse too, but I was not interested in it. I was, however, interested in the tall grass. I landed awkwardly on the ground.

(I am going to demorph, Tobias,) I said. (I believe we are far enough from other humans that I will not be spotted.)

(Yeah, I haven't seen anyone since we left the school,) he said. I quickly demorphed and happily ran around the meadow. It had been too long since I had fed in my natural form. Of course, I also enjoyed eating as a human, but there was something uniquely comforting about grass beneath my hooves.

(This is the weirdest breakfast club ever,) Tobias said.

(Are there clubs for eating breakfast? Is it a competitive event?) I wondered.

He gave a mental laugh. (Nah. Sometimes friends get together for breakfast and call it a club. It was a movie. You know. Never mind.)

(Ah,) I said.

(Think we should head back to Xavier's?)

(Not yet. Perhaps five more of your minutes?)

(Fine by me.) Tobias wheeled off and flew in a broad circle around the meadow. Five minutes later, I morphed and joined him in the sky. We both flew back into Jake and Marco's room. Only Jake was there.

"Where did you guys go?" he asked.

(For breakfast,) Tobias said.

(I wished to find a quiet place where I could feed in my natural state,) I explained. (Where is Marco?)

"In the shower. Can't you hear him?"

(_That _sound is Marco?) I asked in surprise.

(Oh man, Marco sings Celine Dion in the shower?) Tobias said.

"Unfortunately," Jake replied.

(Is this a normal sound for humans to emit while bathing?)

"No, Ax, it is not at all normal. But then, neither is Marco," Jake said.

(What's the plan for today?) Tobias asked.

"Well, Marco's the last one in the shower. After he's done, we'll head down to breakfast. You guys should morph and come too, you don't have to eat anything."

(Will there be Lucky Charms?) I asked.

"It's probable," Jake replied with a laugh. "Anyway, at breakfast, or after maybe, I think we'll meet with the X-Men again. You know, debrief or whatever."

Marco emerged from the shower wrapped in a piece of damp cloth. "Nice of you two to join us," he said. "Now kindly avert your eyes while I dress myself."

(You are not already dressed?) I asked.

"Um, no, Ax, this is a towel."

(Sometimes Rachel wears garments similar to that.)

"I bet she'd just love hearing her wardrobe compared to a towel," Marco said. "I mean that, she would. You should tell her at breakfast."

"Marco, don't," Jake said. "Ax, the towel is just something we use to dry off after we're wet. It's not appropriate to wear in public. It's different from a skirt, which is what Rachel wears."

(Clothing has so many rules. I do not understand this superficial difference between a towel and a skirt, and why one is so inappropriate and the other is acceptable.)

"Also, skirts are only acceptable for women to wear," Jake said.

(That seems unfair,) I said. (Are there garments exclusive to men, also?)

"Jock straps," Marco said.

(What is a jock strap?) Marco did seem to enjoy confusing me.

"I'll explain later, buddy," Marco said.

Someone knocked on our door. Jake opened it, revealing Jean Grey. "Good morning, boys," she said.

"Hi, Dr. Grey," Jake replied.

"Breakfast is ready when you are, and afterwards we're meeting in the War Room."

"We're just about good to go," said Jake. Tobias and I quickly morphed to human and put on some extra clothes, and we followed Jake and Marco out of the room. Dr. Grey knocked on the girls' room and they joined us as well.

"Great singing this morning, Marco," said Rachel. "It really made _Titanic_ come alive for me."

"Just one more free service I offer," he replied. As happened frequently, I did not really understand my friends' conversation, but I decided not to ask. I sensed that Prince Jake was growing impatient with my questioning.

I ate my Lucky Charms with delight. I wasn't even especially hungry after feeding as Andalite, but they were simply too delicious to pass up. The older students were whispering to each other, while the younger ones were talking and joking loudly. I realized that the older ones were talking about our mission, while the younger ones were uninformed.

"Is it really true that Bobby froze the whole Yeerk pool?" Jubilee asked me.

"Yes," I said. "It was very cold."

"… Right."

After breakfast, we went back downstairs to the War Room. It was very shiny. We were joined by the rest of the X-Men, including Professor Xavier and Dr. McCoy, as well as the Chee.

"Cyclops, please report on the mission status," Xavier said.

"Mission completed successfully. Storm and Iceman froze the pool completely, and I damaged the pool's walls with my optic blasts. Some Hork-Bajir and Taxxons were casualties, though damage to humans was minimal. Jean suffered a severe hit, though she regenerated herself using the morphing technology. All team members successfully retreated from the pool and met at the rendezvous point."

"Good. Thank you."

"May I add something?" Mr. King asked.

Xavier looked slightly surprised, but replied, "Yes, certainly."

"I have received word from the Chee embedded into the New York area Yeerk hierarchy that the attack has badly shaken the Yeerks. The damage they suffered was not insurmountable—they lost a little over 1,500 Yeerks, a few dozen Taxxons, ten Hork-Bajir, and less than 100 humans escaped. If the humans return to their homes, they will find Controllers waiting to reinfest or kill them. However, an attack from the so-called Andalite bandits so far from their usual home base has caused a major upheaval in Yeerk plans. Visser Three plans to come to New York today to confer with Ixfifth 421, the ranking leader in this Yeerk cell. All Yeerk pools will have elevated security measures."

"So…" Cyclops began.

"Your mission did a substantial amount of damage to the Yeerks, though they can and will recover from the attack itself. However, the reallocation of resources will leave the Yeerks in a pinch, as they say."

"And the escaped humans?" asked Xavier. "Is there any chance of helping them?"

Mr. King paused. "No, I don't believe so. It is likely they will know the dangers awaiting them and will attempt to exile themselves. The Chee can attempt to track them, but we have little information about the escapees and little chance of locating the majority of them."

Cyclops appeared troubled. "The humans who were freed are going to be hunted down?"

Mr. King nodded his holographic head. "Yes. The Yeerks cannot risk exposure, even if it is very unlikely their stories will be given credence."

"Why weren't we told this in advance? We wouldn't have freed those humans if we had known it would lead to their deaths."

"I guess it just seems obvious," Prince Jake said. "But I guess we've been thinking about this for a long time. It's hard to give a complete briefing about a war we've been fighting for so long."

"So, what, now we're responsible for the deaths of 200 people because we weren't briefed?"

"No," Cassie said. "The Yeerks are responsible for their deaths. You are responsible for giving them a chance at freedom. People have escaped from Yeerk control before. If these people keep their heads down, perhaps they will be able to live in peace."

Cassie held Cyclops's gaze for a moment.

"Cassie is right," Mr. King said. "Perhaps the freed Controllers will die, perhaps they will live. Either way, they will have had a return to freedom."

Wolverine nodded. "It's worth the risk. If I had the chance I'd shred those cages again."

"Better dead than a Controller," I said. "The Andalites have always said this."

"Yeah? And where are the Andalites now?" Wolverine asked me.

This was a bit of a sore spot for me. "As I have told you, the Andalite fleet is occupied fighting Yeerk forces elsewhere," I said with as much dignity as possible.

"None of this matters," Cassie said. "We did the best we could with the information and resources we have."

"I quite agree with Cassie," Xavier said. "I do oppose unnecessary violence, but I think fighting the Yeerks is necessary. I think you should all be quite proud of the roles you've taken in this fight."

"Well, what are we going to do about future fights?" Cyclops asked. "How many casualties will be acceptable? How far will we go?"

"I can only speak for myself, but I will keep fighting the Yeerks until Earth is free or I'm dead, whatever it takes," Jake said.

"I will follow you, Prince Jake," I said.

"Dude, we all will," Marco said. "Look, it was nice working with you X-Men, but we were doing alright without you and I guess we'll do alright if you want to back out."

"For God's sake, we are not going to back out and leave this to a bunch of high-schoolers!" Dr. Grey snapped. "We've been through all this already." She sighed. "It's been hard for us to get used to this. But it's…we have to do this. We do. We will." She smiled at us, but she looked tired.

"Perhaps this isn't the best time to bring this up again," Xavier said, "But I've been giving it serious thought and I do believe we need to notify Erik about this… invasion."

"Absolutely not!" Cyclops burst. "I know you two used to be…friends…but he is not the same man. He's, he's a monster, and there is no telling what he'll do."

"Enough, Cyclops," Xavier said sternly. "It is true that we were once colleagues, but that does not blind me to truth. I am no fool, and I believe it would be in everyone's best interests if Erik and his Brotherhood were to join us in this."

"Excuse me," Prince Jake interrupted. "But who are you talking about?"

"Magneto," Cyclops said.

"The man who tried to turn all the world leaders into mutants a few years back?" Jake asked.

"Yes, and the one who tried to kill all humans last year," Cyclops said.

"I missed that one," Marco said.

"Remember the Blackout? When everyone had those mysterious crippling headaches, and then was suddenly fine again?" Cyclops said.

"Oh yeah. Jill Sullivan's mom died in a car crash that day," Marco said.

"A lot of people died that day," Cyclops said grimly, "And if it had been up to Magneto a lot more would have."

"Well, at least if we're all dead, I guess we can't be infested," Marco said.

"I do not believe that would be an ideal solution," I replied.

"A joke, Ax-man."

"Magneto has done terrible things," Xavier said. "I do not deny this. But he is a man who has had terrible things done to him, a man who believes he is acting in the best interests of mutantkind. And if he perceives the Yeerk invasion as a threat to mutantkind, he will certainly put considerable effort into defeating them."

"At what cost?" Cyclops asked.

Jean stood up. "Let's take a break," she said. "I don't think we're going to get anything productive done if we keep up like this."

"Fine. We'll reconvene in half an hour," Cyclops said tersely.

We all left the room. I followed Jake and Marco up to our bedroom, where I demorphed.

"I don't think I like this," Marco said. "How many people are we going to tell?"

"Mark Twain said that three may keep a secret if two of them are dead," Jake replied. "And we've got way more than three people in on this now."

"And if we decide we don't want Magneto in on this, are they going to respect that decision?" Marco asked.

"I'm not sure," Jake replied. "They're been pretty good about deferring to us, but they keep calling us just kids."

(We Andalites have a saying…not always does wisdom follow age, but it can never be separated from experience.)

"Well, that's great, Ax. We'll just tell them that and then everything will be fine," Marco said.

(Do you think so?)

"No," he sighed. "I don't. Let's just…not talk about it anymore, until our half hour is up."

"Fine by me," Jake said. "Do you want to talk about how awesome the 49ers were last week?"

(What is a 49er?) I asked.

Life has many unanswered questions.


	24. Chapter 24

Chapter 24

Chapter 24

I must confess that I am still extraordinarily delighted to have confirmation of the existence of extraterrestrial life—even if it turns out that some of them are hostile. As a scientist, I have always been convinced of the extreme probability of life on other planets—in an infinite universe, how could we possibly be alone?

Of course, my "Trekkie joy," as Logan calls it, is small consolation for this quandary that we X-Men have found ourselves in. Certainly, we all agree that these children cannot be left to fight this war alone. But what price will our own children, the school's students, pay for our involvement? What price will they pay if we _don't_ get involved?

With issues like this at stake, it's no wonder everyone was rather grumpy at the debriefing this morning. I used my half-hour break to check in on some cultures I've been growing in the lab, a task I always find soothing.

Thus, I felt quite refreshed as I returned to the War Room, though I noticed not everyone appeared that way. Jake and the other Animorphs looked tense, suspicious. Erek and Mr. King looked calm, but then that's no hard task for an android. Cyclops, too, looked edgy. I know how much Magneto loathes Magneto. Certainly, I disagree with strongly with the man's beliefs and methods myself, but I also think the Professor may well be onto something when he suggests the involvement of the Brotherhood in this battle. At any rate, I trust the Professor's judgment enough not to reject his idea out of hand. The Professor is many things, but a fool he is not. Something I was reminded of again when he cleared his throat to start the meeting and said, "Jake, you and your team know more about the Yeerk invasion than we do. What are your thoughts about including more people in this war?"

Jake and the others visibly relaxed upon hearing this, and I realized that we had all been looking to Cyclops and Xavier as our leaders, but these Animorphs are the true leaders of this war. Well—of humanity's side, anyway.

Jake sighed and said, "I don't really know what to think, to be honest. We've been obsessed with secrecy for a long time, and secrecy has definitely kept us alive. The more people that know about us, the more people that could potentially give us away to the Yeerks. At the same time…the more people fighting the Yeerks, the better, I think. I don't know much about Magneto and his Brotherhood, but it sounds like they could do some damage to the Yeerks. I like that. I trust you, Professor Xavier. If you think that Magneto will be a useful ally, then I don't object to his involvement, with two conditions."

"What are the conditions?" Xavier asked.

"First, before anyone thinks about telling Magneto anything about the Yeerks, I'd like for him and his group to be observed by Chee for three days, to make sure none of his team are Yeerks."

"I do not think your ruse with the Chee will work as well with Magneto as it did with us. His ability to sense and manipulate metals means that he would instantly sense an android observer. However, I can use my own abilities, enhanced by a tool called Cerebro, to evaluate the Brotherhood from afar, if that would be acceptable to you."

"Are you sure you'd be able to detect Yeerks that way?"

"Well, I have never sensed a Yeerk before, but I see no reason why I shouldn't be able to. Perhaps you could help me find a known Controller to use as a baseline?"

Jake's mouth tightened slightly, but he replied, "Yes, I can do that."

"Thank you. And what is your second condition, Jake?"

"If more people are to be involved, I don't want them to know about us. The Animorphs. You can tell them all about the Yeerks, the Andalites, the war, but please, nothing about the fact that the resistance is led by human kids with morphing technology."

"Understood."

"Now—tell me about this Brotherhood. What kinds of abilities do they have?"

The Professor calmly told them about Magneto, Mystique, Pyro, Toad, Sabretooth, as well as some recent additions—Psylocke, Callisto, Juggernaut.

"Well, it definitely sounds like they could do a lot of damage to a Yeerk pool," Jake said.

"And they could also wipe out a lot of humans!" Cyclops burst out. "Magneto is psychotic, Professor. We can't work with him and expect him to play nicely."

"Magneto, whatever else he might be, is not psychotic," I interjected. "He is extremely rational in the pursuit of his goal of security for mutants."

"Well, rationally speaking, wouldn't killing all the human-Controllers be a good way to hurt the Yeerks?" Cyclops said. "And it would coincide perfectly with Magneto's goal of killing all of mankind."

"I do not believe his goal is truly the demise of humanity," the Professor said mildly. "I don't believe he thought his attempt at Alkali Lake had any real chance at success. And all of his efforts since then have been rather humbler. Nevertheless, I do take your point that Magneto would take human casualties very lightly."

"But would his entrance into the war help end it faster?" Marco asked.

"We need to defeat the Yeerks, not become them," Cassie said. "Do we really want to ally ourselves with someone who thinks as little of humans as Yeerks do?"

"Perhaps…" said the Professor, "Perhaps instead of revealing the truth about the Yeerks to Magneto, we could tell a partial truth. We could simply tell him that the Sharing is recruiting mutants to use their powers for the Sharing's benefit. He would likely subject the Sharing to the same threats as other organizations that discriminate against mutants—a distraction to the Sharing, and one that could help our cause."

"That would still make us partially responsibly for the deaths of whatever human-Controllers Magneto causes," Cassie said.

"Perhaps," agreed the Professor. "But it could also save lives—particularly if Magneto's ire prevents mutants from being recruited. The Yeerks would be denied powerful mutant-Controllers. And, to be frank, my old friend is likely to spend his time in acts of terrorism and sabotage regardless, so it may as well be against the Yeerks as anyone else."

Cassie's face still looked hesitant, but she shrugged, apparently willing to let it drop.

"I think that sounds like a good plan," Jake said. "Professor Xavier is right: if Magneto's going to be doing damage anyway, it might as well be against the Yeerks. And as things progress, well, he can always be told the truth about the Yeerks later, if necessary."

Scott let out a long breath. "Well, I still don't especially like the idea of getting Magneto involved at all. But this idea does sound much saner than directly involving him in this."

"Are we all in agreement that Magneto should be advised about the Sharing's threat to mutantkind?" asked the Professor.

I glanced around the table and saw everyone nodding, some more reluctantly than others.

"Then I will communicate with him later," the Professor said.

Cyclops carefully examined his fingernails, avoiding the Professor's gaze. Then, abruptly, he looked up, "OK. Where do we go from here? We can maybe count on some hit-and-runs from Magneto. What more can we do? What are you," he nodded toward Jake, "going to do?" You're quite welcome to stay here at the school, though I assume you'd prefer to return to your own homes."

The Animorphs all glanced quickly at each other, then nodded.

"Yes," Jake confirmed, "We should get back. We've never left things in the hands of the Chee for so long. And the invasion is strongest on our side of the country, we should get back to that."

"If you would like to continue fighting the Yeerks, we can provide you with some local Chee contacts," Erek said, looking at Cyclops. "We can also provide secure means of communicating between you and the Animorphs."

Cyclops nodded. "Yes, we'd like that. I guess what we need to talk about now is long-term strategy."

Jake said ruefully, "Our long-term goal is to defeat the Yeerks, Our long-term strategy is pretty non-existent. We've been taking our blows against the Yeerks as best we can, whenever opportunities arise."

"Well, I guess this would be a good time to discuss long-term strategy. We're about to divide the campaign against the Yeerks into a two-front war. What are the implications of that going to be?"

"Well it's going to divide their resources to start," Jake said. "But is it going to bring more Yeerk forces here? How many more Yeerks are out there? Ax? Erek? Mr. King?"

'There are thousands more Yeerks, many who lack host bodies," responded Mr. King. "However, they are mainly concentrated on the Yeerk homeworld—which is blockaded by Andalite forces—or on the Anati homeworld. Our intelligence suggests that Visser Three has already asked the Council of Thirteen for more forces to be deployed here, and his request has been denied. At present, it seems that Visser Three already has all the help he can get."

"If it suddenly seems like there's a new group of Andalite bandits roaming the country, will that strengthen the Visser's case for more troops?" asked Marco.

"I don't know, but I don't think so," Erek replied, with a glance at Mr. King. "The Council of Thirteen is beginning to doubt Visser Three's leadership, and they view the success of such a small number of bandits as a measure of his weakness, not of the strength of the so-called Andalites. Another small group of warriors would not be likely to warrant the respect of the Council of Thirteen."

"Yes, I agree with that assessment," said Mr. King. "I don't think anything short of the arrival of an Andalite Dome ship would get more help for the Visser."

"Well, that's good news, at least," said Jean.

"Yes," agreed Cyclops. "OK, so what do we do with this?"

"I think, essentially, we should continue with our watch-and-wait strategy," Jake said. "Even with twice as many people involved, we still don't have enough resources to launch a full-out war. I thin our best bet is to just keep watching for chances to hit the Yeerks, and just try to stop them from making advances."

"I guess I don't really see any alternatives," said Cyclops. "We definitely don't want to—and can't—launch a full-out offensive. But it's frustrating not to have a better strategy."

"Tell us about it," Rachel said drolly.

"Of course it's frustrating," Jake said. "But look at it this way—we've been hitting the Yeerks with all we've got for the last year or so, and, while we haven't exactly stopped the invasion, we've stopped the Yeerks' worst plans from being carried out. Now we're doubling the size of the resistance, and spreading out our resources—plus whatever impact Magneto-s group might have. It's going to hurt the Yeerks. It's not the most brilliant piece of military strategy out there, but it's better than nothing. It's a lot better than nothing."

He met Cyclops's gaze, and the two leaders nodded. I continued to be impressed by the Animorphs, particularly Jake. They were amazingly mature in the face of the huge burden they were given to carry.

Things moved quickly after our discussion wound down. The Animorphs stayed for lunch—which Ax particularly enjoyed—then set off with their Chee companions on their long drive home.

As we waved goodbye to their minivan, Logan leaned over to me and asked, "Did all that really just happen? A buncha kids and their robot and alien buddies came here to tell us about aliens invading Earth?"

I nodded. "As improbable as it seems, I do believe it actually happened."

Logan grunted. "Good. I was afraid I maybe need to cut back on the Jack Daniels."

"That could still be an advisable course of action, my friend."

"Stick it, fuzzball."

I sighed. Earth's protection was in the hands of a group of kids and us? It didn't seem to bode well for Earth. But I supposed young Jake was right—it was certainly better than nothing.

--fin


	25. Chapter 25 Epilogue

Epilogue

Epilogue

My name is Magneto. I was once known as Erik Lehnsherr, but that name refers only to the weak human I once was, not to the powerful _homo sapiens superior_ I am now. My erstwhile friend Charles always preferred to call me Erik, but he has always underestimated me. For this reason, he never suspected that I have long bugged strategic areas of his mansion. It often makes for excruciatingly boring listening—on and on they go about defending humanity and the importance of peace. But, on occasion, my wiretapping has led to interesting finds. This last week, for instance, has been _fascinating_. I only wished I had managed to install a video camera, since it sounded as if I was missing out on some intriguing images.

Even so… aliens? It sounded preposterous, but as naïve as the X-Men were, they were not fools, and if they were taking this threat seriously, there must be something to it.

I would wait for Xavier to contact me, I would listen to him tell me about the Sharing. I would certainly wait to hear whether his mental scan of my organization found any Controllers. In the meantime, I would weigh my options… ordinarily, I would send Mystique to infiltrate the group, but that seemed risky, given the information I had about these Yeerks. If Mystique's mind were to be read by a malevolent alien, it would bode poorly for the Brotherhood. Perhaps we should limit ourselves to the role Xavier had chosen for us—attacking the Yeerks' public front. At least until we were able to learn more, anyway.

Xavier was right in his assessment of me—I certainly don't mourn human casualties, but nor do I seek them out. He was also right to say that I will do anything, anything to protect my people, be it from humans, traitorous mutants, or even aliens.


End file.
